Best place to buy a battery?

[stevee_p]

Flat battery on the Vee this morning. My first experience of this so need a little advice.

Bike hasn't been used much recently. To and from work 2 weeks ago (7 mile round trip) so I'm thinking it needed a run to charge it and it has now run out.

I don't have a charger so either way I've got to spend money. Can anyone recommend a good place to buy a new battery (to use, and I'll keep my existing one as a spare). I'll probably have to buy a charger next month.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[DesertStrom]

I was had a similar problem a while back, even though I had a Optimate charger I did'nt have the time to charge it so I went down to Halfords & bought a Varta from them.
Not as cheap as you can get them off the web but if you are in a rush to get one they are quite handy.
Sometimes when they are completely flat a charger will not recover them but I connected the old 1 onto the Optimate for a few days and it worked fine.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_264175_categoryId_246903_langId_-1?cm_sp=Intelligent_Offer-_-Product_List_Zone_1-_-Blank&iozone=PLPz1

Or give these chaps a call
Barden UK Limited, 5 Little Park Farm Road,
Segensworth West, Fareham, Hampshire,
PO15 5SJ, England, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1489 570770
http://www.barden-ukshop.com/index.asp

[Steve33]

I can recommend Motobatt batteries. I've now bought two from this bloke:

http://motorcycleproducts.co.uk/

You might need to look up what battery you need here:

http://motobatt.com/

I've put these on my wife's Gladius and my Zephyr combination - both bikes that spend too much time standing. Great cranking power, compatible with Optimate, etc chargers (expecting some disagreement on this one) and seem to hold their charge well. Reasonably priced and bright yellow as a bonus.

[mx_ritchie13]

Hello blokes,
             I got my new battery for my Wee from Amazon and it was only £45.50 with free delivery. I don't know if the battery for the 1000 and 650 are the same but if not it's worth checking Amazon out.  

Ritchie

 

[StromGeeza]

I've always gone for that 'well known auction website'- I treat batteries as consumable so getting 5 years out of it instead of 4 doesn't influence me to spend top dollar.

But I would get something like an optimate to keep whatever you replace the old battery with in good health- a few hours on charge if you've not used the bike for a week or two over winter can help keep it healthy- batteries don't like being completely discharged.

[hookie]

Suggest you buy a recognised brand such as a Yuasa, Varta, Exide etc and shop around for the best price. The unknown makes may well be OK but some definately are not. Ebay may well do the best deal but check for the carriage cost and make sure they supply the acid with it. Some don't which means you'll have to supply your own! A battery charger/conditioner such as an Optimate is well worth having. I've been using one for about 12 years and have yet to replace a battery on any bike I've had since.

[Strommer]

Wotchaget?

[stevee_p]

Nowt yet! I've been at work! Will investigate over the weekend.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to borrow a charger from a mate, charge my existing battery and go from there.

I'm hoping mine just got worn down due to no decent runs recently

[Strommer]

Motobatt are the best ones available.  Can't recommend them highly enough, and no possibiity of leakage.  Like all new batteries no matter what the manufacturer says, don't fit it without charging it.

[stevee_p]

Update...

Battery charged and re fitted. Bike won't start. It's cranking, but not firing up. FI light comes on after about 5 seconds of trying to start.

Any thoughts?

And as the icing on a shit cake, I have somehow lost one of the small rectangular nuts that go inside the battery terminals. Any ideas where to get one of those from?

Cheers

[Strommer]

Check the master fuse and the usual handlebar connectors etc before going too deep.  

Also worth posting what the FI error is.  If you've caused a short/spark etc when fitting the battery you may have popped a sensor...or twelve.... (welcome to the club).

Also check fuses and the starter relay.

[stevee_p]

Funnily enough my knowledgeable pal just suggested the fuses. Will do them first and see.

What's involved in checking the handlebar connections?

[Strommer]

Just the little connectors on the clutch and brake levers.  It's unlikely you be those though. as they won't provoke an FI error.

Posting the FI error code (after the fuse check) is key at this point.

[stevee_p]

So where is this master fuse then? I've checked the fuse box, and the 2 fuses on the starter relay and they're all fine, much to my despair...

[Strommer]

The two on the starter relay are the master (one is actually a spare and is in a dummy socket).

After checking the fuses this is your next port of call.

http://www.vstrom.info/Smf/index.php/topic,7061.0.html

[stevee_p]

Well...this is embarrassing...

I put the bike into dealer mode using the patented Suzuki paperclip and it just came up with C00 so no errors thrown.

Then I look at the battery and think "I wonder if that lead needs to be on the negative instead of the positive...it should have been all along. What a tit.

I now just need to get hold of one of those rectangular nuts and she's sorted. I'm relieved but also ashamed.

Strommer - thanks very much for your advice on this one - much appreciated!

[Strommer]

Fingers crossed there is no damage.

Keep an eye out for FI errors by holding the bike ready to start (but not pressing the start button)  for about 30 secs. IF after 30 secs all is clear you are in business.

Same again on shutdown - bike needs to be well warmed up.  Leave it in gear, pop the kickstand down then wait 30 secs - if no FI errors occur then turn the key off and you're sorted.

[jimbo8098]

You could also have went to wemoto.com. We have bought countless bits and bobs for them for all 5 of our bikes.