stupid cold, stupid alarm stupid bike GRRRRRR

Motorcycling
1

Today(sunday) I set about getting myself ready for work, warm kit on, thick gloves, wolly neck tube etc etc

it was cold out, there was a little frost on the ground but wasn’t as cold as it could have been(it was 1pm BTW)

push the little grey button on my alarm fob and WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH, fumble for the button again to try and shut it off. bugger, that’s not right.

try again, same result, so I leave it, 30 seconds or so the alarm should reset but instead WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH, I’d started swearing aloud by this point

cue 5 minutes of me trying to start my bike and stop the alarm from sounding. no joy on either front. not even a flicker when i turn the key and when i leave it alone all hell breaks loose. now the neighbours are looking out of the windows to see why I’m shouting and cursing loudly into my helmet between random outbursts of high pitched shrieking from my bike.

found my alarm manual, no phone numbers, on the website “please email us with any enquiries”. useless as a chocolate fireguard.

eventually I decided it ust be the battery, despite the fact that it worked just fine for the 30 minute commute both ways yesterday in the same weather, if not colder.

plugged it into my optimate and teh alarm stoppped sounding, still couldn’t get it to flash the indicators or do anything of any sort of intelligence so I kicked it and called my misses to come over in the car. my optimate went to green straight away, not even to orange first.

so, is it my battry dying on me for no good reason? or is it the cold getting into my electrics? or do any of you have a better idea?

2

There is a good chance that if your bike is kept outside or in a garage that is unheated and the temperature is at 0 or below that the ionized water in the battery is freezing. If it’s a gel battery then I cant help.

3

Ionised water! The electrolyte medium in a Lead/Acid battery is H2SO4 commonly know as Sulphuric Acid. Ionised water is used to top if up if the volume has dropped. The freezing point of battery acid is probably about -30C.

The cold will affect the performance of the battery that is for sure. If the cells themselves are fading then it is likely the charge is only being held in the surface of the electrode.

Once the bike is running, then it will not be using any charge from the battery during normal riding.

Or if could be your alarm is ****'d. Had this problem on mine a while back.

4

I have now discovered that my battery managed to completely discharge itself for no reason at all. this mornings reading was 0.88v, from a 6 month old battery used everyday.

Full credit to Johns of Romford though, dad called them up while I drove the misses to work and they exchanged the battery for a brand new one with no fuss. so hopefully once the battery is settled, all shall be weel again