Battery not charging - 500RS '16

[Deck1]

also, I would try and call or email Beta USA directly. They have a real good history of responding and want to take care of "out of the ordinary" issues to keep consumer confidence high.

[Deck1]

Did you ever get this resolved? BEN500RS was having problems with his, and I think he ended up changing front section of harness that is on right side of steering stem. Mine, killed original battery last winter, when riding in snow. I installed Antigravity battery that has a jump start mode on battery. Now, it seems hit or miss if will do anything when I turn key switch on. Intermittently, turn key on, headlight comes on, starts strong, no issue. I can kill engine with key, turn it back on, and there will be nothing, no headlight, no low fuel light, nothing. I try key a couple of times, still nothing. I remove seat, hit the jump start on the battery, key on, headlight on, fires right up. So, on yesterday's street ride, I toggled Voyager to show input voltage, and it hovered right at 12.0 to 12.3 volts going down the road. And if you got hard on throttle, voltage would go down slightly and then maintain. If I turned grip heaters on, voltage would go down to 11.6-11.9 volts. Key on, engine off, shows 10.8v after running grip heaters for a while. So, I think it's time to start chasing what my problem is. I can remember voltage being around 13.8-14 some odd volts when I got the bike, and grip heaters didn't really affect voltage when on.

[Ben500RS]

When my wiring got compromised, so many odd things were happening at once that it bordered on the crazy. The headlight would go on and off depending on how the handlebars were turned. The bike would start or not start depending on where I would pinch the harness. The battery would die and would not get charged while riding leading to a dead battery. All because of the wiring harness and wires that were compromised.

As time is going by, more and more of us are having the issues as the turning of the handlebars left and right and all the up and down from the fork travel is causing all sorts of issues with the RR-S/RS' as they age.

At least the harness, once one has it, is both relatively cheap at $130 or so, and fairly easy to replace once the fuel tank is off. At the first sign of any odd stuff going on with my bike, I will order a new harness right away instead of opening up the harness, trying to find the wire break, fixing it, then wrapping it all up and blah, blah, blah. I will just replace and be done as once one thing starts going haywire, all the other wires are not far behind.

The wiring harness is called the "Front wiring harness for Services"

[Deck1]

Sounds like my next upgrade.

Thanks Ben!

[jbawden]

I never have experienced any suspect issues, just never seemed that the Shorai battery would stay charged over a long weekend ride. I went back to a new lead acid battery (Yuasa YTZ7S) and also changed the head light and smaller auxiliary bulb in the housing to LED. Additionally I added a headlight on/off switch so during daylight hours I just have the small bulb on for general visibility to cages, but can turn the main light on at night (rarely do I ride at night).

Shorai says it needs a minimum of 13.6-14.4 volts to charge and I don't think my Beta is sending quite that much. Maybe there is an issue? But for me and how/when I ride this bike my solution is working. It sits on a battery maintainer when not riding.

[Deck1]

Well, I've been chasing this for a while. I have changed front harness, verified ground at frame mount, and tried different battery. While diagnosing for radiator fan quitting, I checked voltage to fan, and it is about a full volt lower than voltage checked directly at battery. I am not sure if this is normal, but the voltage at the fan pretty much mirrors what voltage at Voyager shows, which is right at about 12 volt, where as at battery showing 13 - 13+ volts with key on, engine off. I removed relay in air box on shifter side, and checked for corrosion, none noted. I am thinking ignition switch might be next. I may try a standard Yuasa battery as well. I like the Antigravity battery, but I don't want to have to remove seat to hit the jumpstart feature on the battery. The AGM battery that I picked up won't even crank the bike fast enough to start, so I think it is a dud. Will probably pick up a Yuasa or another Motobatt battery like stock. It was issue free for 2 years.

My symptom is will start reliably 90% of time, good crank speed, fires right off. But then the other 10%, will turn key to on, and headlight doesn't come on, nothing powers up, no crank, no start. I take seat off, hit the jumpstart feature on battery and everything powers up, bike starts/runs fine.

When it does this, I have tried just cycling key on/off/on to see if maybe relay or key switch terminal isn't connecting correctly, and that doesn't work.