My Custom Motorcycle Battery Has Run Down!

If you haven't had a situation where your custom motorcycle battery gets drained while you are on the road, it will happen to you someday. It is simply one of those things that everyone experiences sooner or later. Maybe you left the head light on; maybe there's another reason, but it will happen and usually when you really need to get somewhere or return home. Of course, it won't happen in a place that your handy motorcycle battery charger is in your saddle bags.

When jump starting your custom motorcycle that is having a battery problem, you need to be very careful or you can damage your bike or the vehicle that is helping you get started. The process is NOT exactly like jumping a car, so don't think that just because you've jump started cars from someone else's battery that you don't need to know how to prevent problems when trying to jump start a dead custom motorcycle battery. If you do it wrong, you may end up rewiring your custom motorcycle or buying the person who helped you jump start your motorcycle a new battery - or worse.

Hopefully, you have a set of motorcycle jumper cables in your saddle bags when your custom motorcycle battery lets you down. If not, you CAN use regular car jumper cabled, but it is rather difficult to get them on the terminals of the small motorcycle battery. It can usually be accomplished with some determination.

Locate another motorcycle if possible but you can charge your custom motorcycle's battery from a car is necessary. No matter what you do, if a car battery is involved, don't allow the car to be running at any point in the process. If you do, you are going to pass excess current through the motorcycle and probably fry the wiring and circuitry.

Determine the positive terminal on your battery. Attach the red or positive clip of the jump cables to that terminal. During the connection process, you must make certain that all the cable clips are never allowed to touch. Determine the negative terminal of the good battery and attach the black or negative clip on the other end of the cables to that terminal on the good battery. Attach the other black clip to the negative terminal of your custom motorcycle battery. If you simply can not get the terminal onto the small motorcycle battery, you can ground the cables to a metal location on the frame.

Now, the crucial part begins. If you are jumping a dead battery from another motorcycle, start the motorcycle with the charged battery and wait a few minutes to allow the charge to pass from that motorcycle to your custom motorcycle's battery. If you are using a car to charge your custom motorcycle battery, do not start the car.

After a few minutes, try to start your custom motorcycle. Hopefully, your battery has charged sufficiently to crank easily. If not, check that each terminal clip has a good connection to the battery terminals. If necessary, wiggle the clip to get a better bite into the battery terminal. Wait a few minutes and try again.

After you successfully crank your motorcycle, let it fast idle for a few seconds to ensure that it will not die when the connection between your custom motorcycle battery and the donor battery is broken. Remove the cable clips in the exact opposite order that they were connected. If there appears to be no problem except that you ran the battery of your custom bike down, be sure to ride a while to get a good charge into the custom motorcycle battery.

If your custom motorcycle battery still does not crank your bike, you may have a shorted battery or another problem and will need to call for assistance. If you have roadside assistance, you can get help no matter where you are. If not, you will need to call someone to come get your motorcycle and take it to a location where you can find out why your battery will not crank your bike.

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