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[skreminegul07]

I us the tender on both while in storage and about every other week during riding season.  Extreme hot weather is equally detrimental to a battery as is the cold.

[Rooster]

I am on my 7th year on my old Wide Glide. Keep it on a tender whenever I park it. If it makes any difference it is a gell mat battery from HD. Recently was camping and had a little trouble starting but the battery stayed strong enough to start it so still has good cranking power.

[ridefar]

I use Tecmate Smartchargers on my stuff and the charger-maintainer is connected whenever the units are not in use, sometimes for months at a time. I have experienced zero ill effects. I still have original AGM battery in a 2003, 2005 and only recently put in a new one in my 2004 and it was probably still good! The HD dealer still believes (or wants us to believe 'cause he sells batterys) that you need a new one every 2 years. The AGM batteries are known to discharge at a far lower rate than a lead acid type. I'm with previous post on your issue being a mechanical problem.

[murphy]

I bought the HD battery tender a while back... one of those rare inexpensive HD products that really delivers.

I've used it everyday for the last five years or so... it works great!

[ice6900]

It does the battery good to discharge, on my camara or mobile phone I try to make a point of running the battery as low as possible before recharging in order to keep the battery strong, I have one tom tom which is rarely used and is only charged on occasion and has good battery power, I have an identical tom tom of the same age in the car which is constantly connected but now the battery has a very short discharge period!

I have never put my bikes on a tender unless its in spring like Kraut has stated after a longer winter hybernation, my 2000 FXDL still has the original OEM battery, only had problems once in those 10years and that was caused by a bad earth,  since 2007 I use this bike only periodically as my second bike, it has 40,000miles and starts with no problems.

[grc]

It does the battery good to discharge, on my camara or mobile phone I try to make a point of running the battery as low as possible before recharging in order to keep the battery strong, I have one tom tom which is rarely used and is only charged on occasion and has good battery power, I have an identical tom tom of the same age in the car which is constantly connected but now the battery has a very short discharge period!

I have never put my bikes on a tender unless its in spring like Kraut has stated after a longer winter hybernation, my 2000 FXDL still has the original OEM battery, only had problems once in those 10years and that was caused by a bad earth,  since 2007 I use this bike only periodically as my second bike, it has 40,000miles and starts with no problems.

You can't compare the battery technology in your consumer electronics (camera, cell phone, GPS, etc.) to the lead acid battery in a car or motorcycle.  The common wisdom with Ni-Cad batteries was to let them run down completely, so they wouldn't develop a "memory" that would limit capacity.  That isn't true with later tech like Lithium batteries, and it has never been true with lead acid starting batteries for vehicles.  Those need to be kept in a fully charged state as much as possible, to reduce sulfation of the plates.

If you use the wrong technology to charge your lead acid battery, then keeping it on a "trickle charger" all the time can shorten it's life.  The proper way to do it is with what is commonly referred to as a "Smart" charger, that senses battery condition and only charges as needed.


Jerry

[tennisman]

You definitely have a problem - bike should fire right off.

As others said, sounds like you have an ACR issue (either failed ACR, bad wiring, not hooked up, or ECU has it shut off in the software).  Any way, needs fixed.  I had an ACR fail and 15K miles later had the starter, clutch basket and comp replaced cause it was grinding bad during startup).  Startup sounds better than new now.

[roadking71865]

No issues using mine all the time.

[bknerr]

i am a believer in tenders. dressers always have a drain (although small) on the batt.., alarm, radio memory. i keep one on 3 bikes and my vette, always get 5-7 years on a batt. you do need to keep an eye on the fluid though, it seems to go away faster with a charger.