If you own a motorcycle and you do not use it for a while, it is most likely that when you use it again you will find that the battery has discharged and therefore you cannot start the motorcycle. Your motorcycle’s battery can also be discharged because it is deteriorated, old or because it has not been used for a long time and at low temperatures.
Therefore, in such circumstances you will have to charge the battery, an essential part of the vehicle so that you can drive with it. Charging the battery can be something that carries certain risks and therefore you may prefer to take it to a workshop. However, with the advice that we are going to give you below, you will be able to do it yourself and learn how to charge a motorcycle battery.
What do you need to charge a motorcycle battery?
- A portable motorcycle battery charger
- A screwdriver
- A permanent charging kit
Instructions for charging a motorcycle battery
- A ventilated place. To charge your motorcycle battery, find a ventilated place. When the battery is charging, a chemical reaction takes place inside that can produce explosive gases, and if you do it indoors, the simple ignition of a light bulb – or any kind of spark – could cause an explosion. -.
- Locate the battery. Locate the battery and if it is not too complicated, remove it to charge it in your garden, patio, or in a safe place where it can be charged for several hours without there being any danger of it ending up in the hands of alien friends. On some motorcycles, the battery is under the seat, on others under the tank and even under the footrest.
- Disconnect the terminals. Obviously, the motorcycle must have the engine turned off, as a first security measure. Before you begin the process of charging the battery, you must disconnect its terminals, first the negative and then the positive. If the battery needs maintenance, it will also be necessary to remove the caps they have. You must start with the negative cable because almost all motorcycles and cars have the negative connected to the bodywork to detect possible short circuits because an uninsulated cable touches the bodywork and in this way the problem does not have bad consequences. When you’ve disconnected the negative cable, wrap a rag around it to prevent it from accidentally touching the bodywork. If your battery has a tube through which excess acid comes out and falls to the ground and not on the parts of the motorcycle and these rust, remove it as well.
- Red and black wires. Now connect the battery charger cables to the battery, for the moment without connecting the charger to the mains. You must connect the red cable to the positive pole and the black cable to the negative pole. Once this is done, you can plug the battery charger into the electrical outlet.
- After loading. Once the battery charging time has expired, do the opposite operation, that is, now you have to first connect the red cable, which has the positive pole, and then the black cable, that is, the positive pole. negative. If you also have the battery overflow tube, put it back.
- permanent kit. If you don’t want to be opening the motorcycle and removing the battery or at least leaving it visible to connect the charger, you can install a permanent charging kit, such as the CTEK for Yamaha or others depending on each brand. You place it once, and so whenever you want to charge the battery, you will do it more comfortably, because it has a cable prepared for the weather and thus it remains outside, to which you will only have to plug the charger when you need to charge the battery. Make sure that the cable that remains outside is not too close to the motor so that it does not burn. With this kit, you’ll need a nearby socket. If you have the motorcycle in a garage and you also have a car, yours or a friend’s, you can put the cables and the charger -connected on one side to the motorcycle and on the other to a socket- inside the car,
Tips for charging a motorcycle battery
- Check the charging capacity of your motorcycle’s battery, and when you charge it, do so so that it does not exceed one tenth of that capacity.
- Remember that a full charge of your battery can last four hours or more.
- If the battery is completely discharged, the charger may interpret it as a 6 volt battery instead of the usual 12 volt. You can try to solve this problem by putting another charged battery in parallel, placing the positive poles with positive and negative poles with negative, or a multi-voltage transformer, then connect the charger to the empty battery and remove the charged battery or transformer.
