| Author | Message | ||
     Discochris |
I was experiencing the hard starting issue over the last few weeks, along with the clock reset every time I started the bike up. Without a fuel gauge, I found it really irritating. I cleaned up and re-greased the main ground under the fuse box, and still no change. Finally, I hooked up the multimeter to the battery and the voltage dropped to almost nothing when I started the bike, until it wouldn't start at all. (2008 XT - about 13,000 miles now.) I feared, as some have posted, that I had a broken wire somewhere, but I took the easy (yet more expensive) route, and just replaced the battery. Problem solved - bike starts right up now - no hesitation. My bike has a build date of May of 2008. The battery was not marked with a date from the factory, so who knows how long it sat in a warehouse at HD before being put in the bike. On my old bike, I just automatically replaced my battery every other season as cheap insurance. In addition, the original owner lived in N. Wisconsin, so the bike likely sat its first winter in an unheated garage (my garage is heated). Just curious how long some others batteries have lasted... | ||
| Ratbuell |
OEM battery. 06 Uly, 26k and counting. Check your charging system to be sure. Add a voltmeter, its cheap insurance. | ||
| Uly_kiwi |
2006 xb12x still going strong  | ||
| Discochris |
My GPS is a Garmin 478, so it has the built-in voltmeter (the reason I chose it over the Zumo 550). While running, it was showing around 14v, but not running, it was showing around 7v. If I have a similar problem, I'll probably have to look at the voltage regulator... I hope not. | ||
| Tdiddy |
06 Uly, 29XXX miles on oem battery. | ||
| Pontlee77 |
06 Uly 41.000 klms still OEM. | ||
| Tastroman |
I have a 2009 that seems to barely turn over.It always starts but sometime I wonder. I only ride it about once a week. Is that enough to keep the battery charged? | ||
| Froggy |
Batteries are a crapshoot. My 03 is still running the original battery. My 06 battery still works, I only removed it as I needed more room under the seat. Some batteries will last a year, others a decade. | ||
| Etennuly |
My '06 battery was not up to spec from day one. Just barely started for a year, HD said as long as it was over 12V it was as good as it was going to be, so they would not replace it. Load spike when starting dropped to 7.5 V. So I bought a AGM from O'reilly. That thing has been cranking it well for nearly three years. I never use a tender either, the plug would be worn out as the bike usually moves all of the time, even in winter. | ||
| Invisible_monster |
I replaced the battery in my '08 Uly XT the end of June this year. Lasted just over 2 years and 14k miles. It did get drained flat once last winter while sitting in the garage so that probably didn't help it's life span. | ||
| Bttrthnwrk |
'09 Uly 12X, 18 months old, creeping up on 30k miles. Original battery, no problems to date. And that includes 2 Tucson summers: maybe 150 - 200 days of riding in 100+ degree weather. | ||
| Blasterd |
My battery is on it's way out right now as we speak. 2009 w/ 8000 miles | ||
| Ghostrider |
Funny, I'm going through the same thing right now. My '03 XB9R has been on the original battery for the last seven years and 25K+ miles. All of a sudden, it's doing that too. So, I figure I got my money's worth out of the last one. New battery for me. | ||
| Cyclonedon |
I'm still running the OEM battery in my 2006 Uly, but I just purchased a Yuasa YTX-14-BS which will be put in before fall is over with because it's starting to have problems turning over when I start it. | ||
| Teeps |
Original battery less than a year. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/207872.html Replacement battery, installed Jun 06; touch wood still in play. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
I have an original equip. that's going on 3 years now. I ran it completely down three times (my friend joe keeps leaving the fog lights on) and its still good - however I do keep it on a battery tender all year round. . | ||
| Pauley2000 |
I did a load test on startup and the Uly was sucking up to 150amps on ignition circuit. Lot of juice in demand. -p | ||
| Hughlysses |
I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that my battery will immediately fail if I say anything about it. (I hope this doesn't count!) | ||
| Union_man |
I knew in the back of my mind that my battery was going for about a month before it died. It lasted 3+ summers and about 20,000 miles, but near the end the bike would hesitiate for a split second...then start. I ignored it until finally one day I had to push start the bike. (BTW I would recommend 2nd gear if you need to push start it.) New battery and she thumbs right over! | ||
| Johnboy777 |
"" ...but near the end the bike would hesitate for a split second...then start"" My bike has done that since day one. . | ||
| Scott0827 |
My 07 Uly, Sept 06 build still has the same battery from day one!!! | ||
| Blasterd |
mine too Johnboy, but recently the voltage also takes a dive too far when the fuel pump spins up. I think mine is about to go, 2009 w/ 8000 miles. | ||
| Union_man |
Johnboy777, Blasterd Have you ever hooked your bike battery to a jumper and started your bike? If you did, did you notice that pause go away? or at least seem shorter? | ||
| Blasterd |
Never hooked to a jumper, just jumped on it and hit the starter. I have a voltmeter so I know it's slowly going dead and I do hook it to a tender on the weekends and it gets driven every day during the week. |
