Hey guys so I seem to have a problem.
The other day I went for a quick ride to the corner store. Once I got done I hopped on the bike and tried to fire her up but she couldn't start. So I'm thinking battery. I call my buddy up and he comes with some cables and we jump start the bike then I ride home. The next day the weather was beautiful so that same buddy and I decided to go for an epic ride; 150 miles. Halfway through the ride, at the light the bike just dies. Thankfully it was across the street from a gas station so I pull in and check to see if I ran out of gas... That wasn't the case. I had some gas but decided to top off anyways. Afterwards I jumped the bike (had the cables with me just in case something like that would happen). As soon as I jump the bike we head off. I turn out of the gas station and sit at the first light. Bike dies again.... So we pull into the parking lot and go to a local coffee shop to look up motorcycle stores to buy a new battery; no luck. So we go back to the bikes and we jump start her again this time leaving the cables on for a good 5 minutes. The bike stays on fine and we continue our trek. So we are back on the highway and everything's fine. Once we get off the highway and to a more of an in town type of roads the bike dies again at a light. So I pull into a parking lot and again jump start the bike, wait, then off we go. SO after doing that countless amounts of times I finally managed to get home.
My question to you guys is: When I try to start the bike it'll either make a rapid clicking noise, a click or nothing. I know the battery is probably toast and I will be getting a new one very soon but why is it that when I ride highway everything's OK but as soon as I get onto town roads things start to get unpredictable? Also I noticed that the bike seems to die more if I use my blinkers (assuming the charge drawn to power them kills the battery) since I'm getting a new battery should I get a new rectifier and starter relay solenoid just to have peace of mind? Is there anything else that I might be missing??
Just another bit of Info: when I'm not using the bike I keep the battery on a tender and it never seems to say charged regardless of how long its on. Also I tried to use a voltmeter for the first time the other day to see the charge of the battery with the bike off and it looked to be around 11v? Not too sure because its an old voltmeter and it only goes up to 9v so that could be way off.
Thanks for your help!
