Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
Royal Enfield Motorcycles => 411 & 450 Himalayan & Scram => Topic started by: jethrotool77 on May 03, 2019, 05:41:51 pm
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Newbie has not been able to ride new Himalayan for two weeks. Result: Battery needs charge. Cannot get access to terminal (blocked). What am I likely doing wrong ? Is it necessary to remove battery in order to get access to posts ? It shouldn't be this much of a hassle, should it ? I would like to RIDE my new motorcycle, not just admire it from the sidelines .Any and all feedback/experiences welcomed. Thanks
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Not sure what your issue is. The battery is completely accessible once you take the seats off.
Passenger seat comes off with the key. The riders seat comes off after that.
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remove the side panel and pull on the terminal covers with a needlenose pliers from the side
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Dear Jethrotool77,
Welcome to the forum. Normally you will get good and kind advice. We were all new once. I can see why you had trouble. Even though I was the US importer I have to look at the seat in a C5 for quite a while till I realized that the seat was easily released by a wire hidden in the electrics box. I suppose I could have read the owners manual but early on they were a bit "short" on information.
What is of greater concern to me is only leaving the bike for two weeks and having a dead battery. Is the machine new? Something is not right
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When you do finally get access to the battery terminals, put on a "pigtail" from a battery maintained and use it regularly.
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Kevin, I'm not surprised at all that the battery discharged as quickly as it did. Mine did it, and if I recall correctly, another on ADVrider did also.
As far as I see it, RE had to cut costs somewhere. Chains and batteries were number one and two items to get short changed. Good news is, those are 'wear' items and usually replaced with upgraded parts by owners.
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Kevin, I'm not surprised at all that the battery discharged as quickly as it did. Mine did it, and if I recall correctly, another on ADVrider did also.
As far as I see it, RE had to cut costs somewhere. Chains and batteries were number one and two items to get short changed. Good news is, those are 'wear' items and usually replaced with upgraded parts by owners.
And being "wear items" are not covered by RE's warranty? ::)
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Roll your eyes all you want, it is what it is.
This whole goddam sight is full of prima donnas.
Fuck this place.
I'm done....
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4 months on the site (that's how you spell it) and it's full of Prima Dona's?
To repeat your post "Not sure what your issue is......but if the amazing help, advice, knowledge and companionship is from Prima Dona's - count me in ????
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4 months on the site (that's how you spell it) and it's full of Prima Dona's?
To repeat your post "Not sure what your issue is......but if the amazing help, advice, knowledge and companionship is from Prima Dona's - count me in ????
If you're going to correct someone's spelling, you must also spell correctly yourself (donna) and also use apostrophes correctly. There is no apostrophe in Prima donnas unless it's a possessive.
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Fair Comment ???? and should have known better ???? - but doesn't get away from the reason behind my comments.....the vast majority of participants on this site are Salt of the Earth types ????
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Fair Comment ???? and should have known better ???? - but doesn't get away from the reason behind my comments.....the vast majority of participants on this site are Salt of the Earth types ????
I prefer sticking our heads in the sand types. ;)
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Fair Comment ???? and should have known better ???? - but doesn't get away from the reason behind my comments.....the vast majority of participants on this site are Salt of the Earth types ????
Sorry if I mislead you; I totally agreed with your comments. If he leaves and takes his ball with him I'm sure I can find one somewhere. And he misspelled goddamn also ;)
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Sorry if I mislead you; I totally agreed with your comments. If he leaves and takes his ball with him I'm sure I can find one somewhere. And he misspelled goddamn also ;)
And site, too! ;D
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More annoyed with myself misspelling ???? English Grammar School (not private) education, I should have known better ???? that said, I did hate English Grammar classes - preferred Arts - maybe why I became a photographer ????
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I guess every punch bowl will end up with a turd in it, sooner or later.
In this case, speaking as a registered forum "prima-donna", I say good riddance to Beardo. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
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I guess every punch bowl will end up with a turd in it, sooner or later.
In this case, speaking as a registered forum "prima-donna", I say good riddance to Beardo. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
We all have our moments. He's mostly been polite and an interesting addition, I think. No need for the fit, though, as he seems to have found this forum useful and friendly so far. Oh well...
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Yah. Your right mattsz. I was having a rather bad day when I wrote that.
Maybe Beardo was having a bad day too?
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Seeing it cranks and starts OK I would not suspect the alternator or its connections or the starter but it appears to be an intermittent fault and so would likely be as Peter said, a fusible link or some connection on the positive supply side of the system.
Both battery terminals and the cable clamps must be free of grey scale though. It it cranks ok at all times then that isnt the problem.
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Yah. Your right mattsz. I was having a rather bad day when I wrote that.
Maybe Beardo was having a bad day too?
That was my hunch. Seemed a thoroughly OK sort otherwise, and I still hope to bump into him one of those rallies up in Oley one of these Junes.
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Hi!
Just in case someone stumbles over this thread and has the same problem...
I also had this newbie "not being able to ride my bike and now the battery is dead" issue and was struggling the entire day today to get the battery out. I found these two videos on YouTube which helped me a lot! The owner's manual unfortunately was not a big help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcm5Oz9idF4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quDn0sxP73M
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And knowing how to get to the battery, and get it out is apparently important for this particular bike as it seems to suck batteries dry for reasons unknown to me. My Himmy is just a few months old and I have already gotten three batteries for it... the OEM and 2 new ones.
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This is just an aside and really has nothing to do whatsoever with this thread's main reason for being or any of the participants who have participated in it (see what I did there? :)(http://)) or their representatives and I know it won't help anybody find or remove their HiMAHLyun's bat tree, but is it me or has everybody (anybody) (anyone) noticed that in all her travels, and I have watched them all, I don't recall her having any battery or starter problems. Both her first bike and her 2nd seem to just answer the call every damn time she hits that starter button. And it starts in one rev every time. If I had used the starter on my '08 AVL as she does, it would have become a fragment (spragment?) grenade years ago.
Whatever all they've done with this HimaLAYan (BRILliant name), they certainly seem to have solved the electric starter/sprag thing that was an (a) horrendous clusterfuck on the AVLs. (Not to mention the "decompressor").
Is it like airplane crashes?; we never hear about the ones that just land safely and according to Hoyle and everybody just gets off and gets on with it?.
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And knowing how to get to the battery, and get it out is apparently important for this particular bike as it seems to suck batteries dry for reasons unknown to me. My Himmy is just a few months old and I have already gotten three batteries for it... the OEM and 2 new ones.
I'm not great with electrics, but three batteries in about as many months cannot be right. Something's gotta be drawing them down into the grave: maybe a "mild" short somewhere? Not enough to blow a fuse, but with sufficient draw to run down the battery? Could one of those newfangled electronic gizmos like that on-board compass be in some always-on state? I wouldn't have guessed there'd be enough draw from it, but maybe over a few weeks? Until that Gremlin's unmasked, maybe a battery tender, even one of those ultra-cheapo Harbor Freight ones (https://www.harborfreight.com/automotive/battery-tools-accessories/battery-chargers-maintainers/automatic-battery-float-charger-42292.html) or one of their little 1½ watt solar panels where no wall outlet's handy (https://www.harborfreight.com/15-watt-solar-battery-charger-62449.html) might do the trick. I use both products here and there, and have been well satisfied with them. It ain't Courtney Love's vibrator. Nobody should have to be replacing their battery every month.
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I'm not great with electrics, but three batteries in about as many months cannot be right. Something's gotta be drawing them down into the grave: maybe a "mild" short somewhere? Not enough to blow a fuse, but with sufficient draw to run down the battery? Could one of those newfangled electronic gizmos like that on-board compass be in some always-on state? I wouldn't have guessed there'd be enough draw from it, but maybe over a few weeks? Until that Gremlin's unmasked, maybe a battery tender, even one of those ultra-cheapo Harbor Freight ones (https://www.harborfreight.com/automotive/battery-tools-accessories/battery-chargers-maintainers/automatic-battery-float-charger-42292.html) or one of their little 1½ watt solar panels where no wall outlet's handy (https://www.harborfreight.com/15-watt-solar-battery-charger-62449.html) might do the trick. I use both products here and there, and have been well satisfied with them. It ain't Courtney Love's vibrator. Nobody should have to be replacing their battery every month.
Thanks for the suggestions. I am really stumped, but granted, I ain't no genius when it comes to electronics either.
I have checked what I can with my multimeter and if there is a parasitic drain, I'm not registering it. Initially I assumed it was the crap OEM battery that everyone has issues with, so I just replaced it early. But then when the second battery was also draining, I thought... OK, maybe I just got unlucky with that battery too. So now I'm into my third battery and it's doing the same thing. I also thought maybe the clock would cause a constant discharge. Still, it shouldn't be anything that would deplete a battery in a week or 10 days. I've never had any of my other 5 motorcycles behave like this. Sure... I'll put them on a tender if I know it'll sit for a month or more (and I always put them on tenders over the winter months). But to have to worry about a battery discharging in one or two weeks if not on a tender seems crazy. And I park the bike in an area not near power, so always keeping it on a tender is not an option. Guess that is just the way this bike is going to behave and if I want to keep it, I just have to accept that fact.
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[...Snip!] And I park the bike in an area not near power, so always keeping it on a tender is not an option. Guess that is just the way this bike is going to behave and if I want to keep it, I just have to accept that fact.
Try one of those little solar panel chargers I linked to. For the past couple of years I've had one out in all weathers keeping my little Com-Pac 16 sailboat's house battery tip-top. It's got holes in either end if you needed to secure it with a smallish cable lock, hang it on a nail, or something. Harbor Freight also sells a Solar Power Connection Cable Kit for less than 10 bucks that includes a long (about 10 foot?) and handy sort of extension cord if needed (https://www.harborfreight.com/home-outdoor/home/solar/solar-power-connection-cable-kit-63981.html).
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Try one of those little solar panel chargers I linked to. For the past couple of years I've had one out in all weathers keeping my little Com-Pac 16 sailboat's house battery tip-top. It's got holes in either end if you needed to secure it with a smallish cable lock, hang it on a nail, or something. Harbor Freight also sells a Solar Power Connection Cable Kit for less than 10 bucks that includes a long (about 10 foot?) and handy sort of extension cord if needed (https://www.harborfreight.com/home-outdoor/home/solar/solar-power-connection-cable-kit-63981.html).
Thank you for that. I missed that link in your first message. I'll definitely give it a try. Looks like a good (temporary) solution.
Cheers.