Weird starter/battery issue?

So, I have had my 07 VFR800 for about 5 months now. It's an awesome bike but certainly my newest (by year) that I have ever had and I am used to carburetors and metal, not fuel injection and plastic.

When I bought the bike, it already had a Garmin Zumo 550 and wired in mount (meaning it is not the kind you take the cord out of). It also has a battery tender and a Power Commander in terms of electrical add-ons. When I bought it, the guy I got it from said it has a strange electrical leak (not sure when it started) but if you keep it plugged into the battery tender, it will start every time. That's fine with me. I have a garage and I don't mind that. BUT, recently, it has been dying after a 5-6 mile trip. I have been bringing the tender with me to make sure I don't get jammed up anywhere, but it happens intermittently, too. Not all the time.

I am thinking it is probably a bad battery. The guy that had it took great care of it and brought it in for major maintenance, but I just don't know. I am hoping it isn't the alternator or that there is something more severe going on.

I could have taken the battery out and got it tested before I asked this, but I was just wondering if others had run into an issue like this before. It has about 15,000 miles, but I thought batteries would last a lot longer than that. Maybe with the extra electrical draws and the fact that he (and I) plug it into the tender when we got it home every time that it might have drained the battery of its chargability over time?

I am going to take it to get a 15,000 mile service on it (chain and sprocket, etc...) and I might as well have them take a look at it, but if I can go without having to spend the $60-$75 for a diagnostic to tell me there are issues with the Garmin mount's wiring or that the battery is probably bad, that would be best.

Thanks for all the help, folks!

 

slap- a new battery in it and keep an eye on your voltage.. the "leak" he may have talked about could have been the battery just giving up the ghost...

 

Giving up the ghost? Is that just the charge? Meaning that it just won't hold the charge anymore? That is what it feels like. There is no way that a short ride and a short stop would kill the battery that fast unless the battery was dead. I'm gonna pop it out and bring it over to Autozone and have them tell me how bad it is...

 

Any battery can have (or develop) a weak cell. This is a cell that - usually because of excessive leakage - just doesn't add to the available 'juice'. If it's only one cell and the others are 100% healthy, the battery will usually start the bike. But... if the cause of the excessive leakage in that cell is 'sediment' from the plates, then it is likely to affect other cells and the result will be a dead battery (and often this happens quite suddenly).

Or... your bike may have a charging system problem. Plenty of info available around here on how to check things out.

 

If it's the original battery, it's about five years old now. And if it has gone flat a few times (as in discharged to a low voltage), it might be time to replace it.