Basically during the winter i started up the R1, was idling fine, then gave it a bit of throttle, and the engine died, checked the battery, and it was dead. I put this down to it just being an old car battery and the cold winter.

But then i bought a exide 16AH bike battery yesterday, and its just done the bloodly same!!

I charged it up for 2 hours with a car charger (looking online now, it looks like i possibly shouldn't have done this).

But it started fine(straight away), idled for a min of so fine, started to drive it out of the garage, and it died, battery showing 0.5V.

Thinking maybe it just didn't have enough charge i put it back on charge, checked on it after an hour, and it was fizzing, so took it off charge, checked and was not holding charge, so i think my nice new battery is now scrap.


Now I'm not sure if I've got issues with the engine thats killing the batteries? or did i just kill the new battery by not charging it correctly?

I don't want to risk buying another battery for it to do the same again!

I think i might go for a small car battery this time, something like this: http://performancebatteries.co.uk/product/895/

But of you think it could be an issue with the engine that could be blowing them?

Thanks for any advice here.

0.5V means you have a big short somewhere or the alternator rectifier pack is fubar'd

something is certainly not right there.
it is poss the battery was damaged in some way by in correct charging but i would be checking the car for a short
your going to need another working battery to test though

Ive had a good look for shorts, but can't see anything obvious.

Is there anyway to check the rectifier?

Its got to be something that happens only after the revs are increased? so logically thinking it could be the rectifier.

Is it going to be a case of getting a new rectifier (£85 is the cheapest on ebay), and new battery and hope that fixes it?

Or can anyone think of something else?


If the rectifier was not working correctly, could it be letting too many volts back to the battery, causing it to go pop?

Also it doesn't seem to be happening at high revs, I think it was around 2K revs, so surely it couldn't be generating enough voltage at that engine speed?

Sounds like a dead short to me also, remove the battery and give it a slow charge.
With a completely flattened battery even if it is relatively undamaged and a conventional lead acid type it will initially allow a very tiny current then after some time connected will start to draw in current.

Re charging new or badly discharged batteries should always be charged at a low rate, If the battery is flat as a rough guide devide the AH of battery by 12 to find the maximum charge rate ie the max charge rate setting for a 14ah battery would be about 1.2 amps.

Because the charge rate will vary during the course of the charge (initially very low amps which suddenly rises then slowly falls as full charge is approached) it takes about 16 hours to charge a flat battery 24 hours is better.

[Edited on 3/4/12 by britishtrident]