Rubcicube Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I use my 02 Bird to marshall at bicycle rides. After 1/2 hr or so of real slow riding (under 2500 rpms) my battery starts to die. After an hour of this my bike will not restart. I bump start it and once I ride it home at normal speeds the battery seems fine. Bike has 63,000 miles and battery is 1yr old. It's on a tender when home. Is this normal or do I have a stator or regulator problem. This problem only occurs when I'm doing the bicycle thing. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiXXation Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I just checked my '03 the other day, and it reads 12.2 V at warm idle RPM (about 900 RPM, and actually discharging the battery some). At about 1250 RPM, it puts out 14.2 V, which I would think would keep the battery alive unless running something else besides the normal lights. The voltage across the battery holds at less than 15 V on up the RPM range. If you are typically keeping your RPM at 2500 and discharging the battery, I think it would be time to check the raw, disconnected stator AC output (for 40-80 V AC across each of the 3 pairs of yellow leads), as well as the regulated voltage across the battery at the various RPMs. You need to check the regulated voltage with the bike and regulator warm, because the regulator can look good cold and drop off with heat and RPM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ndivita Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I just checked my '03 the other day, and it reads 12.2 V at warm idle RPM (about 900 RPM, and actually discharging the battery some). At about 1250 RPM, it puts out 14.2 V, which I would think would keep the battery alive unless running something else besides the normal lights. The voltage across the battery holds at less than 15 V on up the RPM range. If you are typically keeping your RPM at 2500 and discharging the battery, I think it would be time to check the raw, disconnected stator AC output (for 40-80 V AC across each of the 3 pairs of yellow leads), as well as the regulated voltage across the battery at the various RPMs. You need to check the regulated voltage with the bike and regulator warm, because the regulator can look good cold and drop off with heat and RPM. I have an '03 Blackbird which I just bought. It has a relatively new battery in it and a mere 3200 miles on the odometer. But I wonder, are the stator and regulator issues with this bike a function of time or mileage or both? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiXXation Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 The only issue I have with my '03 is that the current leakage is higher than the manual says it should be. The rest of the investigation was due to comparing my '03 to my brother's '00 which did have a problem. Both bikes have approximately the same 34,000 miles. The '00's voltage regulator is mounted on the left side of the rear frame and has a coarser finned heat sink. The '03's voltage regulator is mounted on the right side and has a finer finned heat sink, and it is mounted with the fins more horizontal where the '00's fins are mounted vertically, at 90* to the probable air flow. He is having to replace both the stator, which failed the disconnected AC voltage test, and the regulator, which failed the warm voltage test, even with a new stator. The rear, epoxy filled area of the '00's regulator showed two small cracks, indicating that the rectifiers probably over-heated at some point, but it's a chicken-and-egg thing on what happened first. A common point of failure is the connector from the stator to the regulator. It can burn the contacts and melt the connector housing if it happens to loosen or get corroded. Neither of our bikes exihibited that problem. I'm hoping the '03 will be trouble-free for at least another 30,000 miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Para045 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 But I wonder, are the stator and regulator issues with this bike a function of time or mileage or both? I think it is partly a case of heat cycles and extremes of temperature that have an effect as R/R and stator problems seem more prevalent in the UK and US where you have very cold weather and extended periods of the bike being idle or on a tender Here in Oz R/R problems are not very common and stator failures are quire rare It seems to be more prevalent where the battery is constantly having to be recharged and the loads are greater on the electrical system Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon haney Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I think there may be a simple explanation to your problem. I assume at those slow speeds the bike runs warm and the radiator fan runs a lot. The radiator fan draws a lot of current. ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiremanBob Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Sounds like you need a Valk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiXXation Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I think there may be a simple explanation to your problem. I assume at those slow speeds the bike runs warm and the radiator fan runs a lot. The radiator fan draws a lot of current. Very good point. Enough heat to turn the radiator fan on sure didn't play into our wintertime investigations. Simple explanation, but no simple solution, except to run rings around the bicyclers. In the interest of science, here is one of those you can take it or leave it things. I just went out to the garage and ran a battery voltage test on my '03. Here are the tabulated results indicating that, at least on my Bird, the charging system is capable of maintaining the battery at 2000 RPM: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubcicube Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Thanks for all the input. I'm going to have the charging system checked tommorrow, just to rule that cause out. I will share the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubcicube Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Verdict is in. Bad stator. So will be replacing stator and RR. Ouch, but that's the first non normal wear repair expense in 62,000 miles. Can't complain too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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