Dominator SS owner's journey

I heard that its best to keep on a trickle charger. The bikes I have had before were hardly ever charged or ridden and I never got a flat but for some reason I have heard that my 961 (same battery as your bike most likely) needs to be charged most of the time. Hopefully someone more knowledgable about this issue will come back

Do a Key Off current draw test . See how much drain you have on the battery . I know I can go at least two weeks with no charger and still start the bike . Fast Eddie said he can go a month or more without a charge and still start the bike . I have never tested beyond two weeks without a charge. You have to take the gas tank off , set up the DVM (leads plugged into current jacks and selector set for current mode) and remove all the wires off of the positive post of battery . Then put one meter lead on the positve post of battery and the other lead must connect to ALL of the wires removed from the positive post . There are differences between the bikes , some have more current draw then others. Beyond type of ECU I am not sure why they are different. My bike has an SC ECU with 1 ma of key off draw and others have done this test with the Euro 3 Omex and show 10 to 11 ma draw . I have heard some may have 20 ma draw with the newest bikes.

So Tony, is this fairly common now on newer bikes that comply with euro 3+4. I am sure when I had my 2006 Hog 883 I never charged it once for 6 years or so and only put around 800 miles on it

Welshrugby said:

So Tony, is this fairly common now on newer bikes that comply with euro 3+4. I am sure when I had my 2006 Hog 883 I never charged it once for 6 years or so and only put around 800 miles on it

Click to expand...

I don't think it has anything to do with euro4, my Thruxton never needs charging and that's euro4. I think what Tony is saying is that maybe the euro4 961's are worse than earlier variants. My current draw was 19mA when last measured and my bike would have a flat battery after 4 days without use. I just put it on store mode (lithium) and that seems to keep it sufficiently charged for a cold start.

Ok, I suppose if you know the shortcomings of the battery life on the 961, its not a big hardship to keep it trickle charged. I swap mine between my two bikes and ride on mower (an excuse to escape to the man cave for some ale as well). I like the simplicity of the CTEK chargers myself. I have an older one but would probably go for this when I need a replacement: www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/mxs-5-0

Store mode with the Shorai battery all the time for me. I dont ride as much as I used to but I want it charged whenever I can get out

Yes I agree , Keep the maintainer on it.

MxMartin said:

I don't think it has anything to do with euro4, my Thruxton never needs charging and that's euro4. I think what Tony is saying is that maybe the euro4 961's are worse than earlier variants. My current draw was 19mA when last measured and my bike would have a flat battery after 4 days without use. I just put it on store mode (lithium) and that seems to keep it sufficiently charged for a cold start.

Click to expand...

Well, yeah, but... I have done a lot less mileage than you, and so far I haven’t hooked mine up to a charger at all.

There is a high variance between these bikes it seems, yours is at the bad end of the scale whereas mine is at the good end. It would be really great if we knew what caused this!

Fast Eddie said:

It would be really great if we knew what caused this!

Click to expand...

Perhaps someone with a high battery drain (and the time) could try to isolate it by connecting an ammeter and pulling fuses/connections until the reading drops.

My battery is the original Yuasa, over 5 years old. I never used to charge it, but now I usually charge it just before a ride, more as a precaution. Haven't had any problems with it starting.

I also have an SC ECU and I looked at the drain yesterday. I couldn't get a reading even with the meter at its most sensitive setting, so presumably less than 1mA. I know the meter works ok as I have just used it to trace a parasitic drain on one of the cars.

TonyA said:

Then put one meter lead on the positve post of battery and the other lead must connect to ALL of the wires removed from the positive post .

Click to expand...

I prefer to put the meter in series with the negative terminal. Usually fewer wires connected and less chance of me accidentally touching the positive connections to earth.

comet said:

Perhaps someone with a high battery drain (and the time) could try to isolate it by connecting an ammeter and pulling fuses/connections until the reading drops.

Click to expand...

I did that as part of my test. The only cable from the battery with a current draw is the one tagged for the ecu. I pulled all relays but this made no difference. The ecu power lead could feed elsewhere on the loom but I didn't investigate further. I am far more relaxed about the charge state now compared to when I first got her. She was a pig to start in the early days and needed a fully charged battery but nowadays she fires up after first crank, so sometimes I charge her, sometimes I forget but she still fires up

PS: when I say my battery is flat after 4 days what I mean is it registers 13V or less. The one thing I haven't tried is to see if this is sufficient to start the bike, I might have a test to see what elapsed time does to starting efficiency without putting bike on charge i.e. take battery off charge and start bike 24hrs later, charge battery then leave off charge for 48hrs and try to start etc.

thanks for sharing guys, will try it out