Possibly Time to Replace Battery...?

[Honch777]

Hay folks,

I've got an '04 12R and every time I go to start it for the first time of the day, it'll turn the engine one revolution, hang there for about 1 second and then continue to turn it normally til it fires. However, after the engine is normal temperature, there's no problem restarting.

Another factor that makes me think the battery is going is sometimes the engine falters from idle when given throttle... has even stalled a couple times.

As the title implies, is it time for a new battery?

Thanks,
- Honch

[GregoXB]

Is it the original battery?

[captain13ron]

well it could be, my bike 07STT started like that from day one and still does. do the least expensive stuff first...... test your battery and charging system, I believe the local auto shops will do this for free if you do not have a DMM, (digital multimeter) battery should be over 12.5 VDC, at rest, start the bike and test the charging system, you should see I believe 13.5 or 13.7 VDC

and the usual, even if you did this not long ago .....check all grounds!! I cannot expess this enough, this has been the most consistant failure on my bike, at least once a year it has caused rough running, hard starting, gauges to drop out going down the road, on and on and on......best of luck!

[Honch777]

Not certain how old the battery is, I've only owned it for a year.

Thanks for the advice Captain, I'll certainly check into those grounds.

[DavidB]

regulators seem to be a common issue also on lots of buells. its the bikes "alternator"

[theMelvster6]

What you are describing is what many refer to as "compression bump" the 12's tend to do this regularly on cold starts. If you have ECMspy it'll be easy to tell what the battery is charging at while running. And like said above, check grounds and some have even added more grounds. I've never had a problem with my 9, so I've never had to worry about it...knock on wood.