BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

Hi all

Battery:
The battery in my 2002 R1150R now needs replacement. I'm not even going to ask you to recommend brand names because I doubt if I'll find those brand names in South Africa. Basically, regarding the battery, I want to know:

Gel or not gel?

Battery tender:
My bike did not come with a power socket. Frankly I've never needed the socket but having read various posts here regarding the use of a battery tender (for which I'll need the socket), I saw an advert on e-bay and the battery tender is an "ACCUMATE BATTERY CHARGER/TENDER PACKAGE". However what concerns me is that in the advert it states that the output of this batterey tender is 1.2 amps but in order to charge a battery or to keep it fully charged, it needs an input of 4 amps. I know little about this (I've seen many posts here on this topic) but to me it seems logic that even if you park your bike with a fully charged battery and hook the "tender" up, that the battery will eventually go flat. How long is "eventually"?

Power socket:
I've also seen power sockets advertised on e-bay with different length cables. I take it that the power socket should be connected to the battery itself? How long should the cables be for my bike?

Thank you for once again helping me out.

I hooked up the Batter Tender directly to the battery with the included SAE connector and cable. I also have the BMW plug but the SAE allows me to ues it for gear that hooks directly to the SAE as I mounted it under my seat. It is 9 degrees F and the bike starts right up, can't ride in the snow but the engine seems to like to be started at least once a winter, or maybe I like to hear the sound.

The advantage of a gel battery is not having to check water level which is a pain on our bikes due to battery location. I think I would go that way vs a standard "wet" battery if given the choice. Seems the overwhelming favorite around here is the Odyessy PC 680 maintenance free battery, but they have gotten pretty pricey as of late.

I have a new BMW gel in my 04 and I have no reason to be unhappy with it. As far as tenders go----the Battery Tender Junior is the model that seems to be most often reccommended for gel batteries. It only delivers 750ma or 3/4 amp but that is all that is required to charge and maintain your bike's battery. A higher charging current will charge a battery faster but at the expense of heating the battery which will shorten it's life significantly. A battery that is overcharged (too high charging rate) will swell and can explode. The safest method is "trickle charging" which keeps the charging rate low and does not heat the cells. It takes longer but your only talking probably under 20 hours for a fully depleted battery which won't happen unless you have the bike sitting for many, many months. The tender jr has circuitry that senses the state of your battery's charge and will delivers the proper starting charge current and will then fall back to a "float mode" to maintain after it detects the battery nearly fully charged.

You can take a heavier charger (like 4 amp or heavier) but you will in short order destroy your battery and you run the risk of damaging your bike as well.

Wayne
04r

All the cables for the power socket are there allready.(BMW must have saved $10 by not fitting the plug in the factory) They are behind the starter motor cover. All you need to do is remove the plastic cover, find the wires that are tucked up in the loom. Buy a power socket (either from your dealer or Ebay). Remove the blanking plug from the plastic starter cover, fit the plug and connect the wires. Job done

56

Thank you.

I knew I would get great advice here (as usual).

Johan

Beemeridian wrote:[
you can connect the battery charger through the jumper posts if you have them.

A Ha!!

Jumper post.... thats what that thing is under the rubber cover, on the starter cover

i noticed that yesterday as i was giving the new bike a clean and a 'tinker'. It didn't occur to me as too what it may have been for, even though thinking about it the cover is marked with a '+'