Trickle Charge

Any ideas why my trickle charge will not get to a full charge??
I had it on over night and a day at the weekend and yet still it would only sit at trickle charge, I also use the bike daily to work so I would of thought that the Batt would be charged, also the Batt is a year old along with the Reg/Rec.
Does anybody have any ideas pleas??

you checked there is enough electolite in the battery?

Alot of battery chargers go on the voltage level of the battery...if the eletrolite is low then the battery will never reach the required full charge voltage that the charger is set to!

On the other hand...battery might be well past it's sell by date and needs replacing.

If you do replace the batt...and have the same problems...then you reg/rec might be leaking AC into the batt causing it damage.

Other option is of couse that your charger is playing up!

Trial and error...just need to rule things out one at a time :)

Cheers Furry-TLR, I will check these things, it is a new'ish batt like I said, I got it last year along with the Reg/Rec (known issues with these and VFR's) so I would thought I dont need a new one yet, as I also run it all the time it is not one that sits in the garage for ages over the winter.
But I will check each one of these and let you know.
Now all I need to do is get myself a multi meter to do the testing.

realised I made a tiny typo in that...should be "if the electrolite is low"...changed it now.

VFR's get very warm, so good chance that's made the battery dry up a bit....If the battery is that new, should be fine...but Jap Reg/Rec's always a bit sketchey would of thought they learned how to make them reliable by now!

I think at full charge, the battery unloaded should be showing a healthy 13.5V or somewhere there abouts from the top of my head...if the battery charger isn't seeing it as that or above, then thats most likely why it's saying the thing still charging.

I use a car chager on mine (with a 1.2A fuse so it doesn't fry the tiny bike battery)...that's different as it charges based on current flow and not voltage in that when a battery is fully charged it won't draw any more current...Though I very very very rarely have to charge mine just replaced it with an oversized Dry Cell Oddossey battery could start a challenger tank from that thing :D LOL

So where do you get the tank to go with the Batt you have then??

Yes my bike does run hot, I have had it running at 104 in the middle of winter this year, I do think that it runs hotter than it should.

Hmm I seem to remember push starting your bike last year Furry! I take it your battery was on loan to the ministry that day! ;)

104 in winter...you sure you got coolent in it? lol

Mine is fine when it's cooler...82/83 Degrees usually...but this time of year if I get caught in traffic it goes over 100 and I start feeling my legs getting veeeeeeeeeery warm...in worst cases I turn the bike off if I'm going nowhere fast.


Hehe Ade...that was before I fitted the new batt...gotta go back to that pub though that barmaid was Grade A :D LOL


What got me was after blowing a wad on a new batt....turned out my Batt was ok it was the reg/rec that was dying a slow death...fitted one from a gsxr1000 off of egay...sorted :P

Anyway my bike is a tank...even been off-roading on it now so it's offically an ATV ;D

Yeah it has coolent in it, ever since the time in France in Lyon when a van behind me was flashing and beeping his horn at me to let me know the bike was pissing coolent all over the floor (cos she was way too hot, and just pissed it out >:(), so I have always kept a check on it. ;)
I have even had it in with BikeTreads form them to see anything is worng and they cant find anything. :-?

Well...far as Biketreads go...lets just say you won't catch me recommending them to anyone!

When I chatted to FactoryPro in the USA a while back talking about twins it's funny that even they mentioned the VFR/SP's have a massive problem with overheating...I guess the positions of the radiators have something to do with that.

My rads are at the front, which is actually a pain in the ass as to get to the front spark plug/cylinder head I have to take all the fairings off and then drop the rads down...have to change the spark plugs between 4-8k miles on mine...depending on the type I use.

Tell me about it, why would anybody put the rads on the side of the bike where air is limited, also it heats up legs no end in the summer, during the winter I love it but in the summer it is way too hot.
I did put a post on here a while ago about the heat issue and I had a lot of help but I never did anything as it went into bike treads for a service and this is when they had a look for me.
I might get off of my butt and have a loo now, while I look at the Batt issue.
Is anybody close to Swindon, Shaw willing to give me a hand??

Well Mr H throughout his lifetime has tried re-inveting the wheel...sadly it always came out square LOL

Reminds me of Blair/Brown...someone should tell them that throwing money at it won't fix it either ;D

You might guess I ain't massive fans of them or Mr H ;)

I've always been a soooki person myself...but last couple of years all the jap manfs build quality/finish has gone down the tube so if I brought new now it wouldn't be jap for sure!

Anyway good luck let us know what you find...also I wonder if those rads on yours have fans behind them....could wire them up to a switch so you can turn them on all the time alot of peeps that own TLR's have done that as the rads don't come on till the bike reaches 115 Degrees C...it actually states it in the manual...silly japs! LOL

I will be honest ( :o ) I dont know about the trickle charge problem, but in reference to the over-heating one is the thermostat nackered? Could you get one thats set abit lower temperature wise?

Just a thought! :)

No idea on the VFR...maybe...and it's a valid point always worth giving things like that a check!...but on my TLR it's just how it is and I don't know of any others that fit for the fans...the ECU has a seperate temp sesnor that changes the fuel when it goes over 93 degrees...ie makes it run richer to cool it off I think?

My VFR waits until it gets to 104 and then the fans kick in from behind the rads.
But at this point if I am stuck in traffic the water is still heating up and the fans dont really help.:(

Not good :( Other problems with Twins is as they produce lots of power from low rpm you don't need to be in the high revs much unless your going for it, the downside to this is the water pump impeller is also going around slow unlike an inline4...FactoryPro told me to blip the throttle above 3k when stuck in traffic to help, it just about stops the temp going any higher but I get funny looks from others LOL

I am considering fitting an electric water pump for when I do more tuning work on the engine as more bhp = more heat sadly :(