I know there're millions of R/R comments and threads and posts, but I didn't see quite what I was looking for. Here's the problem: My last battery was getting weaker and needed to be plugged in to the charger every night. I thought it was because I left it sitting for several months untouched. I checked the voltage across the battery several times just to make sure everything was working. The results were always the same. Approximately 14.5v @ 5000RPM (or whatever the exact numbers are in the manual and what everyone here says). I changed the battery two weeks ago and have been putting it on the charger every night, like several members suggest. I've checked the regulator operation again, and it works every time I check. So here's the new issue: I just got back from a 850 mile 3 day weekend with the last leg of the ride being over 100 miles. I filled up the tank right before I got home and when I went to start the bike back up, it was dead. Barely even cranked. I had to push start it to get it home. When I got the the house I checked battery voltage at 11.77v. The bike started once or twice, but still seemed weak. I have it on the charger now. Any ideas what's wrong? I figure if the regulator was intermittently failing, I should have caught it at least once by now. Please help.
Hmm... whats your R/R setup right now? All stock? If it is, rip it out and go to wiremybike.com and get yourself the ricks motorsport R/R and the VFRness. Then find an old computer fan and put that on the R/R. I spliced my fan into the license plate for power and it dropped the R/R temp from 150 deg. F to 100 deg. F. as measured with an infrared thermometer after letting the bike idle for close to ten minutes. I have put at least 6000 miles on the bike since then in the last 10 months or so. The only charging the battery got was a battery tender when the bike was stored for the winter. There's always a possibility the stator has an issue and there are ways to test it, I just don't have my shop manual on me. Others will give advice on that shortly I'm sure.
Check those crappy-ass white connector plugs. I've burned through two sets of them, and finally went to soldering the wires together directly and totally eliminating the connector plugs. So far, so good, but I'm never confident with this crappy charging system and keep my eye on my voltmeter while riding.
