The Yamaha Super Tenere XT1200Z Big Thread

Okay, test underway.

- Mark

Prediction: It won't have a problem if your battery is good.

I believe it! In fact, WE are all excited for you to just get back on the bike and ride. I know you were one of the guys piling the miles on and you always had cool pictures and stories of your TX riding adventures I was jealous of. I don't think I could ever be without my Tenere for this long!

ac

I don't have any doubt that they will DESTROY a stock set of forks.

ac

3 days no riding? It ain't worth it. :)

And the hard start debate is simply the S10 debate. Every bike has one.

So I just went out to crank the tenere after it sat for two weeks (not usual around this house). Battery is totally dead. This battery is only about 2 months old. This has happened before and I blamed it on the factory battery sitting at the dealership for too long.

Don't you think a battery should hold a charge for two weeks?

THIS IS NOT A "HARD STARTING" ISSUE! This a dead battery issue. The bike would not turn over. Of course now that the ignition has been turned on and the FI charged up I'll probably have a "hard starting" issue

P.S.- I know there is a voltage leak somewhere. Mostly venting here, but if anybody has any insight, please enlighten me.

Do you have any aftermarket accessories on the bike at all? You may want to double check the battery connections. These bikes come from factory with battery in them. The dealer doesn't grab one from his shelf and stick it in the bike when new.

Jeff

I agree, there is a voltage leak somewhere. I outlined measuring 'dark current' in a similar post here or on the Super Tenere forum some time back.

Do you by any chance have a SWMotec powered tank bag? If installed the way the directions are, direct to the battery, it draws current even with nothing turned on, just the bag on the tank ring. And will kill the battery quickly. BTDT. It needs to be wired to switched power instead.

I messed up the original post, edits to correct my errors. Thats what I get from not looking it up again.

As for testing dark current, or parasitic draw with the key off, take a multi-meter, set to AMPERAGE in the 10 or 20 amp range and do the following:

Loosen the NEGATIVE terminal so you can easily pull it off. Touch the DMM probes to the terminal and the same battery post, note the reading, which should be 12-14 Volts, then with the probes staying connected, slide the terminal off so that the DMM is now in series with the removed terminal and the battery post. I've forgotten the Ma that spec is, but post what you find and it will be immediately apparent if it's too high. Should be around 45-54 Ma. Much higher than that indicates a problem.

And yes, the battery should easily last two weeks.

I screwed up the above post, please read the edits to avoid any problems. Sorry!

Thanks y'all! I'll get on checking stuff out in a bit.

The battery took a charge and the bike cranked just fine, so that's a good sign.

I will add to this just a little... I had a slightly weak battery in my FJR several weeks ago.. It would turn over just fine but would not fire up. Guess what, when I opened the throttle wide open it would fire... The battery was old on it so I knew it was just an old battery, but sounds like you guys with the Teneres..... After I put a new battery in, the FJR fired right up and good as new... As several of you have said, I wounder if its a voltage "issue".... For the people that are having start up issues, what electronic farkels do you have on the bike ? It might be a common "part" for the guys having issues...... just a thought

Two batteries was the answer for me, I wrote it up over in the Aussie Ten 12 thread

Now that's what real outback adventurers do. 4x4 have been doing it for years

Can you post the link to your write up?

Electrical system on my bike is like this:

Battery -> Eastern Beaver fuse block -> Clearwater lights on switched circuit, Garmin Zumo 550 GPS mount on un-switched circuit

I'm going to track stuff down some time this week. Not today though.

This is the issue. The 550 has an internal battery, there is no reason to have it on un-switched power. Even off, it's likely drawing current.

GPS was not on the bike for any of this time. But I suspect you're right, the cradle may have a short somewhere. However, the same style cradle on my DRZ does not drain its little battery and it sits for a month at a time without being ridden.

I know there's an entire thread dedicated to these tires. However, I wanted to hear from only ST owners...


Is anyone running the 705s?

How do you like 'em?

For those who have had more than one set, what kinda' mileage did you get out of 'em?


.

I am using one on the front right now. 7,000 miles and it looks great still. I would buy another one.

Ok. Battery reads about 12.8v across the terminals. The negative is losing 0.26 mA. IF you read across the poles on the fuse block for the GPS, it reads 0.26 mA even when the GPS is NOT in the cradle. So I moved the GPS to an un-switched spot on the fuse block. The battery is still losing 0.26mA on the negative side:huh.

I don't know. I guess my electrical knowledge comes up a little short