jump starting a bike

Chalk

ive done another stupid thing ...

left the key in the virago all week and now the battery is flat.
can i just get a set of car jump leads off the neighbour connect them up or is it different for bikes?

yes, im crap at this.....

thanks,
chalk

peasant

Your Virago should also be 12V. So no problem really ...other than getting at the battery and the contacts with the big jump leads ...

CJhaughey

Be very careful jumping bikes from car batteries, bike systems are usually designed for small amps and a lot of car batteries put out big amps.
Better to charge the battery and start as usual or jump off another bike.

echomadman

yeah you can jump start it off a car, but make sure you take it for a good long drive to recharge the battery. If its been on for a week i'd imagine it'd be impossible to push start.
Your best bet is to buy a charger in case it happens again, i got one in lidl a few months ago for 7 quid.

Chalk

ohh, forgot to mention,
i have another bike so i should just jump off that?
its a bros400

dawballz

When I had my bike, I didn't even need a battery to turn it on.

I took out the battery one day for some reason and said I'd chance turning it on.
It started no bother, dunno how.

Twas a kickstart btw.

Maybe you could try:
Sticking it into first,
Hand on clutch,
Ignition turned on,
Run down hill with bike,
Let go of clutch.

Might work. Probably not, but worth a try.

Gurgle

Chalk wrote:

ive done another stupid thing ...

left the key in the virago all week and now the battery is flat.
can i just get a set of car jump leads off the neighbour connect them up or is it different for bikes?

yes, im crap at this.....

thanks,
chalk

I assume the Virago is 12V, so the starter motor will suffer no damage.

The only risk is if the electrical system was designed with the bike's battery's rated current as a max, with the starter motor running at lower than it's specified power.

I always start my R80 with jump leads to the car battery, after its been sitting for months, never caused me any problems.

Chalk

woohoo,
started the bike with a jump from the bros.

can i remove the jump leads without turning off the engine?

seamus

Chalk wrote:

woohoo,
started the bike with a jump from the bros.

can i remove the jump leads without turning off the engine?

Yep. Always disconnect the black cable first though! (i.e. in the opposite order you connected the cables)

jackal

For future reference, as a poster said above, you can start it with a bump start. The only thing is to use second gear rather than first, as first will just stop the bike dead! Dump the clutch (i.e. dont let it out gradually) once you are rolling a bit and give it some gas as it catches! Happy days.

Biker.ie

..or get a bike with a kick-start instead

Chalk

@jackal -
we tried push starting it a bit but the bike was having none of it.
ive push-started it plenty of times.

@biker.ie
what bike do you recommend with a kick start?

Haket

A virago with a totally dead battery will NOT bump start, no chance no way no how. Most modern bikes with CDIs and non-kickstarters need a certain amount of voltage in order to fire the electronics. A dead battery will be more a hinderance than a help when trying to bump it.

Like the o/p found out, jump leads are the way to go, and personally I'd use a car as the source over a bike. No point in overstressing the good machine.

The best option is a charger though, an Optimate is IMHO the best of the lot.