Longest lasting battery record?

[kevinbrixhamdivvy]

I've just given in and bought new yuasa battery for my diversion 900. Battery dated 11/1998 on 1999 bike I've owned since 2002 and done 76k miles. Not many modern bikes can do that.

[bluevinny]

Congrats . Is regular use of your bike the reason for your old battery's long life?

My battery is still good after 8 years of use, so using your figures, I have another 8 years left!

[kevinbrixhamdivvy]

Hi blue vinny I think the secret was to charge it regularly during the winter when not riding much. Just a cheap £4.99 bike charger about 500ma max also used a cheap solar panel.Do about 2-3k miles a year.

[mlbv]

My battery died recently...

I am completely unsure of how old it is or what sort of life it was subjected to before I bought the bike the mileage on the last four mot's was about the same (47,025, 47,851, 47,856, 47,865) and then there is an mot gap from 2012 back to 2009, so the bike has had next to no use for the last 6 years or so, I have no idea how old the battery was (it didn't look especially new) but it may be as old as 78 or 9 years....

But it completely died in a way I have never seen before, I went to start it about 10 days ago after it was unused for about five days and it was virtually flat, so I bump started it and it was fine with use every couple of days, I put the flat battery down to local kids having a pay about with the knobs and switches or charging their phones up using the USB socket....

aaaanyay, wouldn't start a few days ago, so I got a length of 2.5mm t & e and connected the bike up to the van and left it charging.... The bike started perfectly (with the wire connected) but even after half an hour of riding wouldn't restart...

I had a good voltage while running, and got a respectable 12.6v straight off the battery but it refused to provide any meaningful cranking current....

Looks like the battery really fell off a cliff within around ten days between the first symptom and it failing completely...

Just for safety, I connected my sillyscope up to have a look at the charging voltage (with and without the battery floating across it smoothing things out) throughout the rev range and it is a little noisy under maximum load but nothing to write home about with no nasty transients (spikes) or drop outs of voltage....

new battery (50 squids) and it seems fine, but I will be monitoring it regularly over the next few weeks to make sure that the battery did indeed just die and it wasn't killed by something more sinister....

This is the first time I have ever had a battery just give up providing current virtually over night!!

[teejayexc]

Try dropping it on a solid floor, works wonders (sometimes)

[mlbv]

yes, during heavy cranking, reaction products (gas bubbles) can cling to the plates inside, this creates an insulating barrier between the electrolyte and the conductive metal plates, this is why leaving a batter to rest for a minute or two before cranking again seems to give a second wind... the bubbles usually either disengage from the metal plates or dissolve back into the electrolyte (the battery acid) the more bubbles there are coating the plates, the less current a battery can provide because it's internal resistance increases... giving it a good whack can dislodge bubbles that have lodged themselves into the plates because the action of electrolysis causes the plates to become rough over time as atom by atom metal is liberated from one pole to be deposited on the other giving rise to a nice rough surface surface for very small bubbles to lodge themselves and remain for long periods...

needless to say, I tried a percussive reboot....!!

[Beehill]

I had one do that earlier this year - but it went in a few hours. Has been riding the bike every day in Spain then got back to it one afternoon, it tried to start and then DEAD!! Even after jump starting and running for an hour or so it showed no sign of improvement.

I have no idea how old it was of course since "it came with the bike".


Andy