Battery Dead

[christian888]

Couldn’t find a thread when I typed in the search bar. I appreciate any help.

I’m new to the world of motorcycles, so pardon my lack of knowledge.

I left my keys in the ignition turned for what must have been 5 hours yesterday. This is my first time making this mistake. Went back to my bike and the lights and dashboard were still on, but the electric switch doesn’t work. I kick started (didn’t think I’d ever use the kick starter), and put it away in the garage for the night.

This morning I didn’t realize it would be dead again, so I attempted to kick start to no avail. (Lights and dash still functioning).

Can I get a jump start from a car (without the car running)? Has anybody had this unfortunate and preventable experience and can guide me on what to do next? Just need to know which is the best route? Car or some kind of motorcycle specific battery starter?

 

[dmonkey]

Yes, as long as the car is 12V and negative ground (anything that isn't an antique) you can use the car to jump start the Honda Trail. Be careful with using car jumper cables, the alligator clips are very large and there's not a ton of room around the battery on the CT125, you don't want to have the clips short out to the frame. If it doesn't start with you kickstarting it then there's likely some other issue though, the CT125 should kickstart even if the battery was missing. Once you get the bike running it will take a while to charge the battery back up, give it a ride for at least 30 min. You can then check the standing battery voltage when it's off with a voltmeter or multimeter. The battery in the CT125 is an AGM battery which aren't meant to be fully discharged, so for the health of the battery you want to avoid that. Another idea is that you can buy a trickle charger that supports motorcycles or has a motorcycle mode (Battery Tender Jr is a common one), then charge the battery that way. There's some info on chargers and installing the SAE pigtail to make trickle charging easy here: https://hondatrail125.com/index.php...harger-battery-tender-battery-maintainer.543/

 

[m in sc]

my wife did that with her cub once. we jump started it with the 66 galaxie.. which has a 140a alternator.. slight overkill.

do NOT use your charging system to recharge a dead battery, its not designed for that. trickle charge it over night. then will be fine. .02

 

[Kev250R]

Call your local Honda dealer and see if they'll warranty it. Don't say anything about leaving the key on, just tell them it won't start and see what they'll say. A buddy of mine did that a few years ago with a Yamaha he used to own. The Dealer warrantied it, no problem. Though it seems to depend on the Dealer and the relationship you have with them.

If you decide to charge it yourself, beware, most 'smart' battery chargers and Trickle Chargers will not charge a battery which is deeply-discharged (I think the cut-off is around 10VDC depending on who made it). I had this problem recently when my GF left the interior lights on in her car for a couple of weeks (it's a sports car and rarely gets driven). The battery measured 5VDC when I put a meter on it. The only way I could get a charge to it was to connect it to an old-school, non-digital battery charger. That got a charge in it after a couple of hours but the battery was damaged, wouldn't hold a charge and I ended-up replacing it.

OP, if it were me I'd just buy a new battery and going-forward be more careful with turning the key off instead of using the Kill Switch. We've all done it. Sometimes you get lucky and the battery will recharge, either from a battery charger or riding it for an extended-period of time (that will work if the battery is still in good shape) however if the battery has been damaged from the deep-discharge (which is likely) then no charging method will bring it back to life and in any event the reserve capacity will likely be effected.

 

[SneakyDingo]

I would buy a new battery as well and be done with thinking about it. That's because I want to ride my bike, not worry about if it will start or not.

The Honda Manual has some entries on charging.

• Pg 46 says to trickle charge it once a month if not using it frequently and to favor chargers that slowly trickle rather than charge faster. Also to make sure the key is in the off position before doing this, likely a safety measure to prevent damage to the electrical system.
• Pg 75 covers the battery going dead. Another warning about automobile battery chargers and overheating the battery. Another statement about deep discharge potentially not recovering the battery and replacement being advised.
• Pg 80 agrees that the switch in the "On" position will result in the battery discharging.
• Pg 100 says that it's a YTZ5S 12V 3.5 Ah (10 HR) battery. Apparently even Amazon delivers these.

One more thing - you mentioned you were new to motorcycling, and this tends to be more along the lines of knowledge that is inferred but not necessarily mentioned.

• For experienced riders who have experienced a low battery situation, it's unusual or ill advised to start the bike, then immediately turn it off and put it away.
• On something like a Suzuki SV650 with a hand operated clutch, I would have bump started the bike[1], then ridden the bike around for at least 30 minutes, only turning the bike off when I would either be standing in front of my home, or in front of an open dealership.
• On this bike, the manual indicates that a "lights turn on but bike won't start" situation should be resolved using a trickle charger. The primary concern from Honda's perspective seems to be heat generation of the battery. In the absence of other options, I would still consider riding around for 30 minutes just to get the charge up a little.

[1] Don't do that on the CT125. It has a kick starter and Honda explicitly says not to roll start it. There's a technique and some mechanical knowledge required to do this. If you want to know more, DM me.

 

[dmonkey]

If you do decide to replace the battery out of pocket (I would personally try to recover it first by charging it), it's worth considering a Lithium battery replacement, they're a bit more hardy and lighter. I have a cheap one in the Honda Trail: https://hondatrail125.com/index.php?threads/lithium-ion-battery.482/
There are also nicer and more expensive ones like Antigravity batteries that will prevent the battery from discharging too much when it's not also being charged, that way if you leave the ignition on without the engine running it will eventually cut power to ignition and lights to save enough charge in the battery to start the bike again, and to preserve the healthy of the battery by not allowing it to deep discharge. You would resume power discharge by pressing a button on the battery before starting the bike back up, or since this bike has a kickstarter you could just kickstart the bike and the battery would switch out of the power saver mode.

 

[JTB]

This morning I didn’t realize it would be dead again, so I attempted to kick start to no avail. (Lights and dash still functioning).

Could be the kill switch is not set to run. Easy to overlook for a new operator. If it won't kickstart then something is going on that won't be fixed by a fully charged battery.