My battery won't hold a charge for more than a week now so it is connected up to an 'Optimate' charger thingy all the time it is not being used. The bike is a year old. Is this normal or do I need a new battery?

I had my bike since nov 2004, done 19500 miles on it same battery. riding every day of the week commuting to work and back whatever the weather, so I assume something is wrong with yours and I would have it checked under warranty by a yamaha dealer maybe is the alternator that is not recharging it.

I know of two people who have had their batterys changed under warrenty as the batterys went tits up in less that a year,it might be a coincident but does you bike have a alarm system built in ?

If you have a multimeter, set it to volts, put the leads across the battery. Start the bike raise the engine speed to about 3000 rpm then take a voltage reading, it should be around the 13 to 14 volts, if it is charging correctly.

Now set it to amps. Remove the ignition key from the ignition & disconnect the earth lead to the battery. Put the positive lead on the battery & the neg lead on the earth strap, this will check amp draw. It should not read more then 0.06 of an amp after 60 seconds. If it is reading more then 0.06 something is draining the battery.

If both these test are ok, the battery will need to be load tested. You would need to take it to a motorcycle dealer, or a battery shop, for them to load test the battery.
If it's still under warranty take your bike to a Yamaha dealer & get them to check it out.

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Thanks for the info. It doesn't have an alarm on it and I don't have a multimeter, so I guess I should have a chat with my local dealer.

Cheers,

Pingu.

My battery died also after a year .
My dealer paid half the cost of the new one.
If u have to buy a new one , don't buy the genuine one, it costs a fortune

Greetz

I too had the same problem with the battery, mine lasted just 3 months and I ride everyday to work (round trip of about 50miles) they checked the battery and swapped out under the warranty.

You can get one for a few quid these days, and they are very useful things to have around. Go on, splash out! I'm sure you can get a digital multimeter for under a tenner now.

Mine lasted 3 weeks, George Whites sent replacement withiut question.

the battery on my bike has also died, ive bought 3 batterys now every single 1 goes dead so i paid 4 an auto electrician to look at it, he said it was my starter solenoide. i took it back to the shop i bought it from as the bikes still under warrenty and they told me to buy another battery, then they blamed the alarm so i had that checked out and that was fine i dont no what else to do
please help!!!!!