Had a play today and got some meter readings off the battery at various stages of charging.
Battery has been fully charged. All readings taken on battery terminals with a multimeter.
1. Just a voltmeter on the battery, bike not running……..12.97v
2. Ignition on, bike not running (h’lights, LED spotlights, Sat Nav on) ……..11.06v
3. Bike running at tick over ………..14.06v
4. Bike running at 4k rpm……..14.24v
5. Bike running at 4k rpm with heated grips on at 50%........14.0v
6. Bike running at 4k rpm with heated grips at 50% + 100watts (2 x halogen spots to simulate heated jackets)…….12.8v
7. As 6 but with one headlight off (- 55watts)…….13.8v
With the heated grips on the voltmeter was fluctuating +/- 0.4 approx. so took an average reading.
Quite happy with those readings and, I think, at a push (with the voltage reading from 6) I could run two heated jackets (doubt I would have them on full setting according to reports, so on a lower setting they wouldn’t draw 50watts each?) plus the few times I’ve used the grips over this winter I’ve had them on the lowest setting. Obviously switching one headlight off will help.
I have made a switch to connect into the left hand, low beam circuit to switch it off if necessary.
At the moment I haven’t changed any bulbs for LED’s. The side lights would be a good choice (if I can figure out how to do them without removing the plastic) but I would rather not change the headlight bulbs. I’ll use the switch if necessary.
All that leads to my question, will it damage the stator to be pushing out that much current for long periods of time, or is that what it should be doing & not dumping it to the regulator/rectifier?