As the season changes and the weather starts to cool, many motorcycle owners choose to store their bike until the warm weather returns again in a few months. As with any piece of equipment, proper care and maintenance of a motorcycle – even when sitting idle – can add to its overall performance and longevity. This is especially true of the battery, which plays an important role not only in starting the bike but also in powering the onboard electronics.
Below, please find a few simple steps you can take when storing your bike during downtime. As always, be sure to follow the manufacturer's guidelines for battery care and handling and direct any questions to your battery technician.
Inspection and cleaning: If you are free to use the bike, it is useful to check the battery storage. This includes checking the battery cables, connections and case. Remove any dirt, debris or rust from the battery terminals. Make sure all battery-related hardware is tight, including terminals and grips.
Use warm water to clean the battery. If there is any acid residue, make a mixture of one part baking soda to three parts water. Apply the mixture until the foam stops, then rinse. Do not use any cleaning agents on the batteries as they are made of plastic which can break down and become contaminated when cleaning solutions are used.
Checking Status of Charge (SOC): A simple test can be done to determine the SOC of the battery. To test, use a digital voltmeter to measure the Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) of a disconnected battery for at least six hours after the battery has been charged. This rest time allows the battery's chemical reactions to reach a state of equilibrium and the surface charge to dissipate to obtain an accurate voltage reading. The manufacturer's specification will provide an OCV corresponding to 100% SOC.
Charge the battery: If the test shows a SOC less than full, charge the battery to help ensure its life and capacity. A full charge will also help keep the battery from freezing. A smart charger can prevent the battery from being overcharged. Not all chargers are perfect, so make sure you're using the right charger and the right settings for your battery type.
Power dissipation without parasitic drain: As your bike sits idle for a few weeks/months, disconnect the battery cables. Leaving the wires connected makes the battery vulnerable to being pulled by insects from any electrical appliances that remain connected. Although this may be very little power, it can still drain the battery capacity in a very short time. If you disconnect the cables, the battery can be left idle without being charged.
Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) ODYSSEY® batteries from EnerSys are built with proprietary Thin Plate Pure Lead (TPPL) technology to deliver double the power and triple the life of saturated lead acid batteries. Plates made of pure lead, not alloys, resist the galvanic corrosion that occurs when dissimilar metals come into contact while immersed in sulfuric acid. Pure lead also allows the plates to be made smaller, so they fit more in the same area as a conventional lead-acid battery. With about 15 percent in mass, there are more electrochemical reactions with the electrolyte to power the ODYSSEY® batteries to deliver cranking pulses of up to 2,700 amps in five seconds. TPPL technology provides ODYSSEY® batteries have a deep cycling cycle of more than 400 charge/discharge cycles at up to 80 percent Depth of Discharge (DOD) to support the growing number of electrical accessories found in today's motorcycles. Other benefits include slow self-discharge rates that allow up to two years of storage without needing to be recharged, and a fast recharge rate that takes at least four hours to reach 100 percent charge.
Last year, EnerSys added three popular battery sizes for motorcycles and other powersports applications to its ODYSSEY line.® batteries. The models are ODS-AGM 14 (BCI BTX-14), ODS-AGM 20L (BCI BTX-20L) and ODS-AGM 30L (BCI BTX-30L), which provide 220 Cold Cranking Amps (CCA), 275 CCA and 400 CCA, respectively. Their temperature range is -40°F (-40°C) to 140°F (60°C).
When the time comes to retire your bike, taking a few minutes to check the condition of the battery can help ensure it stays healthy all year long.
Check out our websites at www.odysseybattery.com and www.eu.odysseybattery.com for the latest ODYSSEY® Global battery news and updates.
You can also connect with us on social media using the hashtag #MYODYSSEY by following us on the following regionally based platforms:
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ABOUT ENESYS
EnerSys, a world leader in energy storage solutions for industrial applications, designs, manufactures and distributes energy systems solutions and dynamic energy batteries, specialty batteries, battery chargers, power equipment, battery accessories and outdoor enclosure solutions to customers around the world. The company goes to market with four business lines: Energy Systems, Dynamic Power, Specialty and New Ventures. Energy Systems, which includes energy conversion, energy distribution, energy storage, and closed spaces, are used in the telecommunications, broadband and utility industries, uninterruptible power supply, and many applications that require stored energy solutions. Motive batteries and chargers are used in electric forklift trucks and other industrial electric vehicles. Specialty batteries are used in aerospace and defense applications, heavy duty trucks, advanced vehicles, medical and defense applications. New Ventures provides energy storage and management systems for a variety of applications including demand reduction, energy conservation, and rapid charging of electric vehicles. EnerSys also provides aftermarket and customer support services to its customers in more than 100 countries through its global sales and manufacturing facilities. More information about EnerSys can be found at www.enersys.com.
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