[Killing Floor]

As the title says , how accurate is the battery's voltage indication on the 2017 and later GSX-R 1000 / 1000 R' s dashboard ?

On September the 20th , i bought a 2018 GSX-R 1000 R , which had two previous owners .
the first one kept the bike until July 2022 , when the second owner bought it and kept it barely 3 months before selling it .
I bought it from a car resaler agency which had one of their customer selling this bike and accepted to sell it for him .
When we tried to start in in September , at first the battery was too low , the bike did not start , so they charged it and when i came back the next day , the bike started .
The day after i got a bad motorcycle accident ( I had already paid an account to reserve the bike ) and i could not go and get the bike until about two weeks ago ( i had paid for the full amount to buy the bike a few days after i went to see it the first time ) , so it stayed unused in their agency / office , between the 20th of September ( when they charged the battery with a Bosch C7 battery charger ) and the first days of January 2023 and obviously the battery was discharged once again !
They charged it once again in the first days of January 2023 , so i could come back home with it and i did not have any problem with the battery for the moment , although as it's been raining nearly every day since early january , i barely used it , especialy as i don't use it as my everyday bike.

But tonight , when i used it to go to a supermarket ( 2 or 3 km from my home ) and to the gas station , to fill its gas tank , i saw the battery's voltage indication on the dashboard was specifying only 11,6Vdc ( it is still the stock Yuasa YTZ10S battery inside ) , so i wonder if the battery'voltage indication on the dashboard, is accurate or not !
Cause even if i only rode it 2 or 3 times , for about 25 to 30 km ( 15,5 to 18,6 miles ) since i brought it back from the agency from which i bought it ( last time was today , for about 4 or 5 km / 2,5 to 3 miles and previous time was saturday the 7th of January , for about 23 km / 14 to 15 miles ), the battery was fully charged on the 4th of january or so !

Either the battery is not keeping the charge, or the voltage indicator on the dashboard is not working properly !

 

[BillV]

I'd expect the voltage indicator to read correctly. The obvious thing to do is to use a multimeter to measure the battery voltage and compare it with the indicator. Battery's can go to hell if discharged too much. That may have happened to yours. I guess the charging system might also have gone bad but I'm more suspicious of the battery. The C7 is generally considered to be a car battery charger. Their batteries are larger and have higher capacities than motorcycle batteries. It's probably OK on the Yuasa but is a bit much.

 

[TwistedMister]

welp, you could get hold of a multi meter and manually check voltages to see if they are both the same readings, my guess is the battery is toast tho.. not unusual

 

[SparkyMJ]

Yeah battery is probably done. Coulda sat for a few of those first-owner years totally dead and that would wreck it. So long as there isn't any weird electrical accessories that could be draining the battery, you'll probably be fine with a new Yuasa, and just pick up a bike oriented battery tender and be done with it. I wouldn't worry about the voltage reading on the dash until you can consistently get the bike to start. Multimeter is better anyhow for testing.

-Mike

 

[Killing Floor]

Thanks for your answers !
I have a multimeter and a Tecmate Optimate 6 Select TM-370, so that is what i use usually to test, maintain and acharge my batteries and i measure them with a multimeter but i did not havé the time to take care of that on this bike yet ,as obviously , for 3 months since my motorcycle accident , i could not ride nor take care of any of my bikes ,cause i have had to unmount and charge several batteries from my other bikes and put them back in .
It's just that i was ( half ) surprised with the reading of the battery's voltage indicator in the GSX-R 1000 R when i read only 11,6Vdc , so i wondered if the battery was really damaged or if that voltage indicator was getting nuts !

I was ran over by the two double right rear back wheels of a huge tourism coach / bus ( with two axles at the back, each having two wheels on each side ) on the 22nd of Last September , the type that weight more than 25 tons , so i had a fractured left elbow , fractured pelvis on the right and a fractured , sunken and displaced rib cage in the area of the sternum !
But the ZRX1200R i was riding had little damages , i'm'the one who took most of the damages !
A chance the bike did not fell on the side of the full exhaust racing system !
So as i could barely even walk for a while , i could not unmount my batteries and charge them before, and it is only once i felt able to do it recently , that i coulf finaly take care of my bikes but i was not sure if i would have to replace the battery in the 1000 R or if it was ok after they recharged it , especialy as i only went to pick up the bike just a few days ago , as soon as i was able to ride a bike again ,until i saw that voltage indicator reading that 11,6Vdc voltage !

 

[Chriswoodgreen]

As the title says , how accurate is the battery's voltage indication on the 2017 and later GSX-R 1000 / 1000 R' s dashboard ?

On September the 20th , i bought a 2018 GSX-R 1000 R , which had two previous owners .
the first one kept the bike until July 2022 , when the second owner bought it and kept it barely 3 months before selling it .
I bought it from a car resaler agency which had one of their customer selling this bike and accepted to sell it for him .
When we tried to start in in September , at first the battery was too low , the bike did not start , so they charged it and when i came back the next day , the bike started .
The day after i got a bad motorcycle accident ( I had already paid an account to reserve the bike ) and i could not go and get the bike until about two weeks ago ( i had paid for the full amount to buy the bike a few days after i went to see it the first time ) , so it stayed unused in their agency / office , between the 20th of September ( when they charged the battery with a Bosch C7 battery charger ) and the first days of January 2023 and obviously the battery was discharged once again !
They charged it once again in the first days of January 2023 , so i could come back home with it and i did not have any problem with the battery for the moment , although as it's been raining nearly every day since early january , i barely used it , especialy as i don't use it as my everyday bike.

But tonight , when i used it to go to a supermarket ( 2 or 3 km from my home ) and to the gas station , to fill its gas tank , i saw the battery's voltage indication on the dashboard was specifying only 11,6Vdc ( it is still the stock Yuasa YTZ10S battery inside ) , so i wonder if the battery'voltage indication on the dashboard, is accurate or not !
Cause even if i only rode it 2 or 3 times , for about 25 to 30 km ( 15,5 to 18,6 miles ) since i brought it back from the agency from which i bought it ( last time was today , for about 4 or 5 km / 2,5 to 3 miles and previous time was saturday the 7th of January , for about 23 km / 14 to 15 miles ), the battery was fully charged on the 4th of january or so !

Either the battery is not keeping the charge, or the voltage indicator on the dashboard is not working properly !

Mine guves the same reading as my mutime, spot on.

 

[Chriswoodgreen]

Mine guves the same reading as my mutime, spot on.

Multimeter

 

[Killing Floor]

I am wary of battery problems since i got blocked during a whole night in january last year , on a rest area of a small countryside road , waiting for a tow truck to come , with nobody around and no light at all, 500km from home as i had gone there to buy a 2015 GSX-R 750 ( i had planned to use for riding on tracks ) but despite the bike started directly when we started it when i bought it , the battery got discharged in maybe 5 or ten minutes whereas i had stopped in that rest area because of a huge truck pushing behing me to go faster despite a huge fog with which you could not see 5 meters away !
So i stopped there, to let him pass and just the time to put some ear plugs against the wind in the helmet and to blow my nose, letting the hazard lights on (in case any car or truck would come from behind me ) and headlight ON but without the engine running .
in less than ten minutes the battery got discharged , whereas i had stopped half an hour ( 50km / about 30 miles ) before to eat in a restaurant on the road and had no problem starting the bike, knowing i had spent 24 hours in that city where i bought the bike, sleeping one night in an hostel and riding and stopping in different areas of that city without battery problem , before i finaly decided to go back home about 11:00 PM ...

 

[BillV]

California law says that the battery capacity must be sufficient to illuminate all rear lights for a minimum of 15 minutes with the engine off. As the California models don't have a special electrical system, that should apply to all Suzuki's. However that could be much shorter if the headlight was on.

Displaying to .1 volt seems to be the standard for voltage monitors. I've never liked that and would greatly prefer one that displays to .01 volt.

 

[TwistedMister]

holy smokes there's that video on youtube of the guy getting ran over on a scooter type bike like that, the trailer pinched him off in the corner, scary part was the rider got tossed off onto the sidewalk and ran and beat on the door of the tractor, driver stops, then a little tiny kid comes crawling out from under the axle area and ran to his poppa, talk about spooky..

I bet that rib cage hurt like a mother, hard to take a deep breath right? welp, good to know you're on the mend, lesson learned, STAY AWAY FROM THESE BIGGER RIGS, hale I stay away from everything, I want my own space and I'll jump a sidewalk to get it, split whatever just give me that lil' buffer I'm good.. cagers don't understand bikes need space so they can react to their own road hazards, fookin cages and big rigs try locking me in I grab the line and boogie, why a boosa rules, don't even have to swap gears, crack it and gone! they don't get it cuz they don't ride..

when I'm in my car whatever I give bikes priority over everything, I'll slow to let them get up to that buffer zone, filter, whatever... in busy traffic for me its a continuous filtering of traffic, 10 over whatever, gives me more control no one is coming up behind or changing lanes into me, which is a big one on freeways for bikes, I always filter like that.. if a cop lights you up simply explain what you're doing, the traffic was getting too dangerous for me to stay with big rigs and sketchy cars blind spots.. didn't feel safe so I headed for an open spot, too dangerous to slow down and wait for open space so I had no choice but to speed up and pass, perfectly legal, it's in the laws for most jurisdictions, speeding is OK if its to find a safer driving or riding condition, passing.. cops know this, however if they see you blowing by safe spaces time and again they might have an issue, so i generally wait for the pack of cagers to catch up behind me how they do then I go again, most cops have responded to a fatality or two caused by the very same cluster fugg, and the excuse is always the same, "I didn't see the motorcycle rider" as if that's a legit excuse, but they never get cited, very rare anyways..

most cops understand if you explain it realistically and rationally, if they dont the judge will understand, they're constantly sitting on cases and get the see the aftermath pics of these accidents, they know what bikes are against, IMHO this is why most motorbike cops do not mess with bikers long as you're geared up and just filtering, I filter on surface streets too when its real busy, 45mph you'll find me doing 55-60 and I've gone by motorbike cops and they'll look down at the ground, they get it, hot, crazy cagers, they let so many foreigners into this country it's one huge can of corn, a massive clusterfugg, idiots will be in the far right lane, 3 lanes wide and turn left across all 3 lanes to turn left on a red? they get away with murder, no jokes, they kill someone and not even as much as a ticket between the language barrier and "I didn't see anything", they nail pedestrians you name it, happens all the time, cross 3 lanes to go left, on a red light? just idiotic stuff, cuz thats how its done where they're from and when they get to take the test in their language, what's the point?... cops know this so if you look like a responsible rider and are courteous most cops will offer a lot of slack, don't smash mirrors of kick in doors they may get the road rage call, and who knows but if you let em know man these cars and big trucks were violating my space making me move off to the emergency lane whatever, "one guy literally touched my boot, had I not been on point I'd be splattered back there, no signal nothing just moved over right onto me" let em know what you face on a daily basis..

 

[Atiroocky]

After two years old without any issue, even if I charged it during a full night, starting up was ok the day after, but if I was waiting 2 ou 3 days more, impossible to start, even if lights was ok (11.9v on dashboard).
Old batteries don’t like cold.
I swaped the guenine one by a lithium battery, saved 2kg, and startups are very good.

 

[TwistedMister]

never tried a lithium on any bikes, ive gotten good usage ot of yuasas, got 15 on my 78 750 and it may have last longer, last time I started it, fired right upbattery tenders and room temp really help over winters..

 

[SparkyMJ]

I have used Shorai lithium batteries and standard lead Yuasa. Both work great, and do what they should do. I've never had any starting issues even in the cold with my lithium, just give it a sec with the ignition on and it'll crank.

Only time the lithium battery has been annoying was when I was doing a coolant flush. Starting the bike 5-8 times in a row without riding at all is hard on the lithium battery because it just doesn't have enough capacity to do that over and over like the lead battery. So now when I do coolant changes, battery tender set to lithium mode between engine start ups.

Also got almost 10 years out of the stock Yuasa on my ninja, and back then I didn't even have a battery tender. They are great.

-Mike

 

[Gixxer1070!]

You’ll find that lithium batteries don’t like the cold weather either.
I put one in my 17 1000R, I tend to ride year around in Kansas , as long as it’s no snow on the ground.
And even with my bike plugged into the tender when I’m not riding, I still have to cycle the key a couple times, to wake the battery up, before I try to start it.
But it does always start.

After two years old without any issue, even if I charged it during a full night, starting up was ok the day after, but if I was waiting 2 ou 3 days more, impossible to start, even if lights was ok (11.9v on dashboard).
Old batteries don’t like cold.
I swaped the guenine one by a lithium battery, saved 2kg, and startups are very good.

 

[TwistedMister]

lithiums have a bad history of spontaneously combusting...