By: Josh Riverside
All motorcycle batteries look small. The biggest ones you can find seem to be heavily burdened with the gigantic machines they operate. But its size does not mean easy maintenance for the battery.
For one thing, these batteries lose one percent of their charge per day just sitting there doing nothing. So you can see that you just can't park it, walk away, and come back in four or five months and expect it to work. Amazingly some of them do work after that kind of abuse, but a greater number of them don't.
A modern motorcycle battery is a marvel of compact packaging. A motorcycle may look smooth on the outside, but inside it’s a different story. Every single part of the motorcycle is vibrating when you start the engine. These vibrations affect the performance of the motorcycle battery, as they are made with lead plates that rattle as your engine churns. Common sense will tell us that vibrations cause motorcycle batteries to lose their stored power. Don’t be deceived by the looks of the plates, they are not as sturdy as they seem.
The lead plates are good active ingredients, but they are only tender pastes cast into intersecting wires. They are pretty much like your waffle batter. This characteristic of lead plates helps in allowing better chemical reaction. Like waffles, lead plates are very porous. This allows the electrolyte to be easily absorbed.
Motorcycle batteries serve more than just motorcycles; in some parts, they can be actually modified and used in small boats or as a generator for a household. Batteries will fail without warning. Knowing this, you can take some precautions and be prepared. For one, you can post a note indicating when you last charged your motorcycle battery. It is not recommended that you buy a backup battery. Do not liken a battery to a spare tire; batteries tend to loose their charge even if you don’t use them. A better thing to do is keep the number of your mechanic, so you can call him in case of emergency.
Batteries work like humans, too; you don’t really have to check on them every time but it would help if you include it on your car/motorcycle maintenance routine.
