So I've charged my battery for the fifth time today, and after about 45 minutes of riding, the bike started to slowly loose all of its electronics...the headlights started to dim, the turn signals wouldn't work, and eventually the whole gauge cluster went dead, and then the bike studdered to a stop.

I've never had to do any major maintenence other than the air filter and oil change, so this will be my first involved tech project with the bike. How hard is it to replace the alternator, and is it something that can be accessable w/o removing half the bike? I am going to be bringing it in to the shop in about a month to put a new clutch in, should I just wait until then?

Thanks in advance,
Marshall

 

Are you sure the battery is good? It may not be holding a full charge.

 

According to my charger, when I plug it in (dead) the needle is at the "charge" indicator. When its charged, the needle is at 100%. So it is accepting full charge.

 

I'd have the battery load tested before buying other parts. Our shop used to have a lot of customers come in with similar problems. After a few years 100% charged on one of those meters isn't exactly the 100% that it was new. It simply will not take anymore charge, so it reads 100 on the meter.

Its worth a shot before buying alternator parts. Load testing is easy and a shop generally won't charge you for it.

 

Thanks for the advise Bud. I'll bring it to a local battery shop tomorrow.