Sunday, 14 Nov 2021
Marc writes:
I pulled into the parking lot at Bill’s and dropped my side stand to kill the engine. Rob was behind me. I pulled off my gear, unplugged from the bike, and waited for Rob to remove his helmet and earplugs. I wanted to tell him that both of the headlight bulbs on his R1200RT were burned out. What I didn’t do was turn off the ignition of my bike.
After breakfast and the after-breakfast gabfest I geared up and went to start my bike. That’s when I noticed the key was in the on position. The instrument panel was off. The battery dead – kind of. More on that in a bit. The draw of the instruments may not have been enough to drain the battery. Even adding the draw of my heat-troller might not have been enough since my heated gear wasn’t plugged in. But the heated grips were on, too. That will drain a small motorcycle battery in the hour or two the bike sat with the ignition on.
In July of last year I replaced the stock KTM battery with an Antigravity ReStart Lithium battery. Lithium batteries do not take well to being fully discharged. The Antigravity battery contains a sensor that turns the battery off if the charge gets too low. They set the “too low” level somewhere above the bare minimum so in theory the battery is turned off with still enough juice left to start the vehicle. I tested that this morning.
Remove saddle. Unscrew the two screws holding the battery cover and remove the battery cover. The I keep a T30 torx bit and 1/4” drive T handle with extension in my small handlebar bag for stuff like this. Remove one more T30 screw that holdes the battery retaining bracket. Remove bracket. There is the magic button.
restart button
Note: Picture was taken back when the battery was installed which explains the disconnected ground lead.
Push the button. Turn on the key. The instrument panel lights. Push the start button. The bike starts. I like this battery! Five minutes later the battery bracket, cover, and seats are back on the bike and it’s time to leave.
The battery voltage as indicated on my instrument pannel typically reads around 14.5v. As I left the restaurant for home the voltage read 13.6 volts. It didn’t get back to the 14.5v range until I put about 10 freeway miles on the bike. When I got home I connected the battery to the very smart lithium battery charger to let it do its thing.
Jerry took some video of the restart.
Jag sent these pictures
While I was playing with a battery some of the other riders headed up to Mt Umunhum. Jag took these pictures.
