rain kills battery???

[tedkraus]

Hi everyone. So I road my new bike the 05 Suzuki vstrom 600 miles away for memorial day weekend.... Laramie Wy- Omaha Nebraska. Bike has been performing well, but last night it rained and the bike woulndt start... so I took the battery to advance auto since they charge batteries free. And they said it was dead...and would charge it 5 amps for 1 hr. Per the 12bs battery.  I looked for bare or exposed connections couldn't find any.. just wondering if this ever happened to anyone before..

[tedkraus]

So I charged the battery 5amps for one hour and the bike is still dead. Im stuck and have work tomorrow need advise.

[TLRam1]

You are saying no replacement to be found? Do you know anyone with a bike you can borrow their battery, can you put your battery in and jump off from another source than take off home.

[lragan]

I have push started my 3rd gen when the battery was dead.  As long as you don't shut it off, you should be able to make it home.  Or if you must shut it off (like to buy gas!!), park it where it is easy to push.

[TLRam1]

If your charging system is up to par almost any 12 volt battery would work that you can connect for the trip home.

[Magnum Magna]

You did check the fuses. 

[tedkraus]

So made it home...So here is the story checked the battery after it was charged 12.5 volts, went back to my friends place put it in bike is completely dead. Checked fuses wires etc.  Checked battery voltage again 6 volts... Ten minutes prior the battery was fully charged... So we tracked down a open auto parts store with a battery pre-charged. A "Magna Brand Battery", dropped it in bike fired up and I road the 600 miles home.  I was just so puzzled I still have no idea why the first one so suddenly went out? Have you guys had batteries seem perfect one day and dead the next? Never had this problem before, usually batteries slowly get weak for me. With my experience with my Subaru, both Magna's I owned, and my fiances car.  

EDIT: I forgot to add, I was able to push start the third gen magna before without issue, but I could not get the suzuki to push start for the life of me, I even tried to push start it down a small incline...  

[Lurkin]

Since moving to Texas 20 years ago, ALL my batteries fail this way.  Real PITA.  Only warning I've gotten is that "sometimes" I get a slow starter sound once before it's gone, and when it's gone, it's toally gone.

[tedkraus]

Interesting, possibly the heat from riding 600 miles in 95F and hotter on the interstate cooked the battery??? No slow starter, just a completely dead battery the next morning... I was worried the rain had caused a short on the bike,  since that had happened to my friends Harley where a rubber wire coating had rubbed off.

[Magnum Magna]

Yes. Everything is great come out of the bank bike would not start.
Push started went to a bike parts place. In Texas three years and you are on borrowed time.
Magna has a big plus it is easy to push start then most big bikes.

[John Luttrell]

Since moving to Texas 20 years ago, ALL my batteries fail this way.  Real PITA.  Only warning I've gotten is that "sometimes" I get a slow starter sound once before it's gone, and when it's gone, it's toally gone.

Same for me, all my bike batteries seem to almost never give any warning before dieing.

[tedkraus]

Fine for a few days now. So I think the battery died catastrophically like you all described. Thanks again for all the great input!

[Lurkin]

Since moving to Texas 20 years ago, ALL my batteries fail this way.  Real PITA.  Only warning I've gotten is that "sometimes" I get a slow starter sound once before it's gone, and when it's gone, it's toally gone.

Same for me, all my bike batteries seem to almost never give any warning before dieing.

Just to be clear that is all bike and auto batteries.   

[lragan]

Unless you install a voltmeter, I don't know how one would anticipate battery failure, even if it were "gradual".  By far the most stress on the battery is in starting, so I would expect it to eventually fail to start the bike.  Even though this appears sudden and catastrophic, I suspect if we had better monitoring, we would see that is not the case.

[Imabass]

sounds like it had 2 dead cells. It happens and common after 3 years on a decent battery or 3 months if it is Wal-Mart battery.