The day after I got back from Dublin, I tried to ride my bike to work, but the bike just would not start. I knew instantly that it was a dead battery, but assumed it was because the battery tender had come unplugged during my trip when Dallas moved my bike. I charged it for 45 minutes, rode it to work, and then the next day it died again. I charged it again this time overnight, rode it again, and then it died again. I charged it again overnight, and the next morning, absolutely nothing. At first I blamed a disfunctional battery tender, since it’s no longer showing charging lights.
I replaced the battery just last year, in fact, the day after I bought the bike. The battery in it previous to it was a 3 year old OEM model, and very week. The fact that I was stalling and restarting the bike every 10 minutes didn’t help. I knew that AGM Batteries were the bee’s knees, but could not find a local source for ones that would fit my bike, so I bought a Magna Power CB12AL-AFP lead-acid battery. Unfortunately, this was the kind of old-school battery that required you to mix the acid in yourself, and regularly refill with distilled water.
Last week, when I took the battery out of my bike to check the water level, I came to a shocking conclusion: It was completely dry. I didn’t see any water level mark at all. I had charged a dry battery multiple times and completely killed it. I knew it was time to look into AGM batteries again, since I had time on my side. Looking at the F650.com Battery FAQ, it seemed that only one AGM battery would reliably fit without modification: The BikeBatts YB12AL-A2, a custom-made battery just for our bikes.
I called them up to find out that they were actually out of stock on that model, but had a new XtremeVolts replacement ($56) that puportedly had a higher CCA rating, but I didn’t think it really mattered for this application. In any case, the battery arrived to me appearing to be fully charged, and it fit in the bike without any fuss at all. I’m very happy with it so far.
Once this is solved, I only have two more broken parts on my bike to deal with: the fairing tabs, which I’m not bothering with, and my crappy chain guard/possum scraper (which I removed), to which I am waiting for a replacement on before I take it offroad again. Neither of which will prevent me from riding to work tomorrow though!
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