Battery /Solenoid?

The moral of the story is to not fanny around and get your battery checked at the outset. It will save everyone a lot of time.

On a positive, I now know where the starter motor is and how to strip, clean and service the contacts pn the solenoid. In addition I've learnt that when you press the start button the ;ights should go out.

Blackthou said:

Update

To cut a long story short, I removed the battery and took it to a local garage. They tested it and although the volts were good, the stored amps were less than half. We also noticed there was a slight bulge in the side. The meter said it needed replacing. Hope that's it now.

Thanks again to all for your help.

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OMG...If I had starting issues and my battery was more than 3 years old or has be doing a lot of setting without a good trickle charger on it that would be the first thing I would replace. I would go no further until I did that. I have seen so many posts like this and in the end it is the battery.

I get your point but up until the problem arose I hadn't had one. The battery hadn't shown any signs of failure and although not used for a while it had been trickle charged each month which previously had been enough.

I now have an Optimiser 4 which means she will be on permanent hook up/conditioning.

I did buy a new battery but before resorting to fitting followed up on all the good suggestions by our fellow Captains just to be sure as I read many threads where a new battery has been purchased and it turned out not to be the root cause.

Blackthou said:

I get your point but up until the problem arose I hadn't had one. The battery hadn't shown any signs of failure and although not used for a while it had been trickle charged each month which previously had been enough.

I now have an Optimiser 4 which means she will be on permanent hook up/conditioning.

I did buy a new battery but before resorting to fitting followed up on all the good suggestions by our fellow Captains just to be sure as I read many threads where a new battery has been purchased and it turned out not to be the root cause.

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Out of curiosity, how old was your battery?

As you said 3 years. I've had bike batteries without issue 4 - 6 years before - that was their age when I sold the bike.

The Rocket obviously with all that grunt is a different beast.

I've had new batteries last anywhere from a few months to 7-8 years. 3 years is not bad. Always look at the simplest explanation to any mechanical problem first.

I keep all my bikes on a tender and colder months will kill an un-tenered battery eventually

Blackthou said:

As you said 3 years. I've had bike batteries without issue 4 - 6 years before - that was their age when I sold the bike.

The Rocket obviously with all that grunt is a different beast.

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@Blackthou I didn't mean to rag on you, but I have seen this post from so many people on the forum I get frustrated with them searching for the problem without going to the battery first. The first rule of troubleshooting is to go from the simplest solution to the more complex. They start looker for a bigger problem first and miss the obvious.

This will be my 3rd year on a battery. At the beginning of next riding season it will get a fresh battery. It will be a AGM battery that I put acid in myself and not one that has been setting on a shelf for 6 months waiting to be sold.

It is a cheap investment relative to everything else I have done to my bike. If it don't start... it doesn't go and if you can't provide adequate current for the device that loves it (your starter) it is hard on that as well. Most people know if you run a high current power tool on too small a cord or circuit you will burn it up. From my perspective, spending $100 on a good battery is a small price to pay for piece of mind.

Sure, I could still have one fail, but at least I made an effort. I'm big on prevention rather than riding it till it breaks. I also load test my battery periodically to see how far it draws down during starting just to make sure I'm good. What can I say...I'm a freak of nature!

EarthX Lithium Iron Phosphate battery...troubles be gone, as well as more $ than you'd like to spend, but your starter issues go away.

@Bedifferent

No worries there. I totally agree with all the statements you made, especially preventative maintenance.

Everything pointed to replacing the battery but I've seen many posts where people have done just that only to find it wasn't the cause. I was just eliminating other possibilities to be sure and with hindsight (a marvellous tool) would have had the battery tested at the outset. Know more about starters and solenoids than I did before LOL

Thanks again to all those that helped.