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Hi chaps

Madame Thirsty the Falco is on her way back to AP again- a winter of hard starts on a weak battery has all but done for the sprag.

I've got no power in my storage area, so I'm thinking about putting a quick connector on the battery so I can take it indoors with me to put on an optimiser and spoon at night. I have butchered an old and very hefty UPS at work and retrieved two genderless, 600V 50A connectors, exactly like this

http://www.torberry.co.uk/superbasket/p ... m+Contacts

But before I get too carried away, I wonder how many amps get pulled from the battery on start up? Not that these have cost me anything, if I burn them out trying then what the hey.

Cheers!

First of all carl welcome to the forum , I have just changed the sprag clutch in a falco because of the very same problem you describe the former keeper had.
I personally would'nt use this method with the plug you have shown has i don't think there is enough room with cables taking slightly different routes.
I would buy and fit some quick release pins and just remove the battery.
That said anything is possible

Depends on the CCA (cold cranking amps) rate of the battery. Some can be as much as 600A. However, this is only for a short space of time. The connector you've shown will be more than capable of doing the job. It's whether the UPS units can as they're only designed to maintain power, not for sudden hard starts.

Our electronics guru Andy should be along shortly.

H Carl, welcome to RS/ARS

Ive moved the topic to a better suited area.

The YTZ14-S battery gives 230A starting current and this is more than the standard one.

My battery is dead too from sitting too long. I have no power in the garage much like you, so last week when I was off work I rigged a second battery in parallel on plug in connectors (thus doubling my storage capacity) which allows me to unplug it without disconnecting the main battery. I also have both these batteries connected to solar chargers (which put out about 2.5w each, presumably in desert sunlight conditions, but should keep them both right up there).

Might be worth considering something like this, the second battery is only connected using normal household cable as I disconnect it before starting the bike (therefore only a very small current flows through the cable). Doing it this way means you have loads more storage capacity, without having to disconnect the main battery and resetting all your clocks to foriegn numbers.

Don't worry about the CCA of the battery too much - what will be drawn on cranking will peak at a level dictated by the voltage of the battery divided by the impedance of the starting circuit - which will be very low until the starter spins and generates some back-emf creating a very high current draw.

Fortunately that is only present for a very short period of time so you are not looking for something that is continuously rated to handle that current.

You can get a good idea of the current rating you require of the connector by considering the rating of the other components in the starter circuit. This circuit is unfused so that's no help .... however the starter relay will be a good guide for you.

Of course, whatever connector you use will not only need to be able to handle the current but will need to be as low impedance as possible so that you don't introduce extra voltage drops (particularly when hitting the starter)

Sorry Kwackerz, thanks for moving me :)

Lots of interesting input, thanks everyone! Lots to think about. Maybe a hybrid of wayno & blinkey501's ideas. Hmm.

Wayno, I've thought about solar cells before but as it's communal garages, they might go walkies... still, it does seems to be the only really ideal solution. Mabe I can bolt them down hard. What solar chargers and how many do you use / recommend on your two battery setup? I've not found anyone who's ran these chargers over the crappy months. Wonder how well they work?

blinkey501, do you have a link to these quick release pins of yours? Never seen them before- sound exactly like what I'm after!

Now, fingers crossed it's a straight sprag swap and AP don't find anything too horrible when they pull the flywheel out!

Thanks for the help guys

Carl wrote:Sorry Kwackerz, thanks for moving me :)
Wayno, I've thought about solar cells before but as it's communal garages, they might go walkies... still, it does seems to be the only really ideal solution. Mabe I can bolt them down hard. What solar chargers and how many do you use / recommend on your two battery setup? I've not found anyone who's ran these chargers over the crappy months. Wonder how well they work?

I used to use a single charger on my old falco and the winter months on a single oxford solariser kept just enough charge in the battery to get it going, but that bike had no alarm, this one does (thus the flat battery)

My garages are communal, but most of the people are trustworthy and as the cable disappears into the garage they would have to snip it off to steal it. The second charger I use is from maplin (they were half price last year so I grabbed 2). If you use your bike a lot over this time of year they should be enough to keep it topped up (mine sits there for most of winter so just drops steadily)

its actually wayno who has produced the quick release pins - https://www.ridersite.com/viewtopic.php?t=10279

and as you will see from that thread the humour here is.... different - b ut welcome - please join in

oh - and if you live somewhere far away, can you let us know so we can send you Quentin's Hat??

pm sent Carl

Aladinsaneuk wrote:can you let us know so we can send you Quentin's Hat??

You keep away from my hat - I know where you're camping.

Hi Carl, I've got some of the quick release seat pins, would recommend them.

Thought you only used quick release hat pins!
Well that's what Pete told me.

HowardQ wrote:Thought you only used quick release hat pins!
Well that's what Pete told me.

My new hat has a chin strap with a clicky buckle thing. Perfect for biting potential hat thieves.

we will just wait till you pass out again

She's got them on already, cheers gents!
I have them installed ready and waiting for the day I might need somewhere to put two R clips :)