[2009R6/2018MT09]

Hey y'all. Purchased this bike a few months ago and the battery has been pretty flawless to date. Well here in Austin TX it has gotten down to the 40s/30s at night and it's been raining quite a bit over the past month so I threw the bike cover on her and left her in the backyard. Planned to take her for a ride and heat everything up today and the pump seems to prime, the battery attempted to start for a bit...but no dice. I tried several times and no start. Towards the end it just makes a rapid clicking noise. I put jumper cables on and tried to jump it from my car (didn't turn the car on) and still no dice. I currently have it on a 1.5Amp trickle charger and plan to try again in 12hrs (tomorrow morning). Is there anything else BESIDES a bad battery that this could be? I mean I know these bikes have weird starting issues e.g. in the morning on a cold start she usually blasts right up on the first try but when heated it almost always takes 2 trys. First bike I've ever owned that did this and I've had quite a few. (2001 CBR F4i / 2008 CBR 600 RR / 2009 R6 to name a few)

And man, I hate this push down button! Just feels cheap. Why didn't Yamaha use just a good ole push button? Maybe it's a naked bike/non-sport bike thing?

Any feedback is much appreciated!

 

[ChesterBurnet]

It's probably the battery. First figure out if it's that. I never knew them to have weird starting issues.

 

[2009R6/2018MT09]

It's probably the battery. First figure out if it's that. I never knew them to have weird starting issues.

Thanks. With a 1.5Amp trickle charger do you think 12hrs is good enough to try again? And is it ok to try and start it up while on the trickle charger? Also, even if it was a 100% dead battery, shouldn't it still respond to a jump? I figured I could at least get it running on a car jump

 

[ChesterBurnet]

Thanks. With a 1.5Amp trickle charger do you think 12hrs is good enough to try again? And is it ok to try and start it up while on the trickle charger? Also, even if it was a 100% dead battery, shouldn't it still respond to a jump? I figured I could at least get it running on a car jump

I'd unhook the charger when starting. Modern electrical systems are not my forte but there are some very smart people on this forum and hopefully they'll chime in.

 

[Darf]

These bikes are weird with jump starts, I had a similar situation the first year I had the bike. I would park in the shed in the winter and drained the battery, jump start didn't do anything and I needed to trickle charge it.

Spend the money on an antigravity battery. Great investment.

 

[2009R6/2018MT09]

These bikes are weird with jump starts, I had a similar situation the first year I had the bike. I would park in the shed in the winter and drained the battery, jump start didn't do anything and I needed to trickle charge it.

Spend the money on an antigravity battery. Great investment.

Thanks, I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning.

And interesting, that antigravity battery looks pretty awesome, has a jump-start button too. Looks like I'd need the ATZ-10 model. Amazon 2 day may be the next route.

Edit: Actually...dat chits on PRIME

 

[Shinyribs]

Rapid clicking you are hearing is the starter solenoid contacts fluttering. Barring internal corrosion, they only flutter like that when the battery is weak. There's just not enough power to keep the solenoid engaged so it flutters.

 

[Budo]

Tried having a friend push ya and do an old school bump start?

 

[jav_eee]

if you're gonna jump start make sure youre making good contact and let it sit for 15 minutes before trying to start it.

 

[MT09 2014 Sweden]

Leaving the bike for a month without a fully charged battery in 30° Fahrenheit may have left you with a sulfated battery. These are small batteries and with some self discharge its easy to go below 50% charge and get sulfation. Its important to keep the battery charged when not used and left outdoors for longer periods.

 

[LouG]

I agree, probably a deceased battery. Strange that it wouldn't start off another though.

 

[2009R6/2018MT09]

Leaving the bike for a month without a fully charged battery in 30° Fahrenheit may have left you with a sulfated battery. These are small batteries and with some self discharge its easy to go below 50% charge and get sulfation. Its important to keep the battery charged when not used and left outdoors for longer periods.

I think this was it. I put it on the tender overnight, light said charged this morning, she fired right up like a bat outta hell!

 

[dandywarhol]

I agree, probably a deceased battery. Strange that it wouldn't start off another though.

Which makes me think the issue is in the starter switch or solenoid............................

 

[ridetofish]

Which makes me think the issue is in the starter switch or solenoid............................

For sure a flat battery. These bikes need a well-kept battery.

 

[dandywarhol]

For sure a flat battery. These bikes need a well-kept battery.

I accept that but why wouldn't it start with a jumper battery? Hence my reply. 😉

 

[PegasusJockey]

I think I have an explanation for why it would not start with a jumper. I admit that part of this is guessing though. I think we will all agree that electronics can be finicky about having the correct voltage. Solenoids and starters not so much. When you hook up a jumper to a very dead battery you are appling approximately 12.8 volts to charge the dead battery. You have plenty of amps to turn the motor over BUT your battery is still charging. In doing so it is using the voltage and amps to restore itself thus I would guess if you put a meter on the output it might only show 11 volts or so even if the starter is turning. That is way less voltage than the electronics requires. Under such a condition I am sure that even attenpting to push start would be unsuccessful.

 

[PegasusJockey]

Oh, forgot to add that if you had just let the battery charge for 5 minutes with the jumper I think it would have started up just fine.

 

[dandywarhol]

I think I have an explanation for why it would not start with a jumper. I admit that part of this is guessing though. I think we will all agree that electronics can be finicky about having the correct voltage. Solenoids and starters not so much. When you hook up a jumper to a very dead battery you are appling approximately 12.8 volts to charge the dead battery. You have plenty of amps to turn the motor over BUT your battery is still charging. In doing so it is using the voltage and amps to restore itself thus I would guess if you put a meter on the output it might only show 11 volts or so even if the starter is turning. That is way less voltage than the electronics requires. Under such a condition I am sure that even attenpting to push start would be unsuccessful.

Interesting hypothesis.