Fellow Sportster owners,

How long do your batteries last ?  & when they die, do they do it in seconds ?  The battery I have now has worked just fine for the last 11 months, then just died today.  The battery before this one lasted 5 months.  The bike gets ridden every day & the cells have always had the correct amount of fluid. I had a new voltage regulator put on a year & a half ago.

I have noticed the water in one cell has turned white ?

Because the Sporty only has a 32 amp stator & not a proper alternator plus the fact that the headlight is always on, mean that the battery is never properly charged ?  I have read where a battery needs to be charged at just over 14 volts to take a charge properly.  Would putting it on a 4 amp trickle charger every week for a couple of hours, make the battery last longer ?  Would putting a switch on the headlight, so I can turn it off during the day, get the charge rate over 14 volts ?

Kev........

Thanks for that info dave.

I took the old battery back to where I bought it & they gave me a 100% refund ,  as they reckon the battery was faulty. I then bought a 19Ah 300 CCA , gel mat, zero maintenance 'Voltz' battery.  These are made in China & cost $140.  The battery I really wanted, but was not in stock, is a 400CCA gelmat $180, with the terminals going out to the edge of the battery case (so the cables just bolt straight on, rather than using spacers to reach the terminals, as per a normal battery setup.)

I use to have one of those little automatic low amp chargers but my car killed it, my car has a current draining problem, but that's another story. So, I shall have to buy another one.  I will also do what you suggest & fit a volt meter to my bike.

I had a new regulator fitted back in November 05 & the workshop said the charging system was OK then. 

Kev...............