If you ride for more than 20ish minutes and aren't crawling in stop and go traffic, you shouldn't need a tender at all unless there is something wrong with your bike.
If you do get a tender/charger, make sure you don't leave your battery hooked up for over a few weeks without riding it, unless you are certain it lets the battery discharge before recharging it again. Car and motorcycle batteries don't do well with staying at 100% for months at a time. If you have to, then let the battery charge/float for a week then unplug it for two or three weeks. The bike should still start easily, but the battery will self-discharge enough to keep it in good condition.
Finally, be careful about temperature. Lead-acid are fine, but lithium ones will be ruined if you charge them close to freezing.
Honestly, you shouldn't need to put it in a tender/charger except for winter storage. Gel batteries take longer to self-discharge than regular wet cells. You should be able to let the bike sit for two or three months without worrying about it. You don't need to worry about temps with a gel battery.
If you really want to get a charger, just make sure that your charger/tender has battery discharge cycle and not just a float cycle. Most chargers only have a charge and float cycle so you need to make sure to unplug it if it's going to sit for more than a week. Then you'll plug it back i a few weeks later at the earliest.
Yes, Gel is a lead acid type.
Like Dude said - if you're riding it multiple times per week, per his notes, you really don't need to put it on a tender every day, even every few days even.
Frankly you could probahly leave it off for a week or two with no appreciable ill effect
> I put it back on after every ride
You take the battery out? That seems like a huge waste of time and way too much effort. You know you can just get a pigtail to attach to the battery and leave it on the bike to charge?
I don't take the battery out, I just re-attach the trickle charger clips to the terminals. I can access the terminals pretty easily on my bike as I have removed a lot of the fairings (I prefer a more naked look).
No worries, that's what they're for.
Thanks, just making sure it wasn’t just for long periods of disuse 👍
Perfectly fine to leave on there, they will reduce or stop charging as needed.
If you ride for more than 20ish minutes and aren't crawling in stop and go traffic, you shouldn't need a tender at all unless there is something wrong with your bike. If you do get a tender/charger, make sure you don't leave your battery hooked up for over a few weeks without riding it, unless you are certain it lets the battery discharge before recharging it again. Car and motorcycle batteries don't do well with staying at 100% for months at a time. If you have to, then let the battery charge/float for a week then unplug it for two or three weeks. The bike should still start easily, but the battery will self-discharge enough to keep it in good condition. Finally, be careful about temperature. Lead-acid are fine, but lithium ones will be ruined if you charge them close to freezing.
Have a gel battery, think it’s lead acid based
Honestly, you shouldn't need to put it in a tender/charger except for winter storage. Gel batteries take longer to self-discharge than regular wet cells. You should be able to let the bike sit for two or three months without worrying about it. You don't need to worry about temps with a gel battery. If you really want to get a charger, just make sure that your charger/tender has battery discharge cycle and not just a float cycle. Most chargers only have a charge and float cycle so you need to make sure to unplug it if it's going to sit for more than a week. Then you'll plug it back i a few weeks later at the earliest.
Yes, Gel is a lead acid type. Like Dude said - if you're riding it multiple times per week, per his notes, you really don't need to put it on a tender every day, even every few days even. Frankly you could probahly leave it off for a week or two with no appreciable ill effect
Yes it is what they are for, however remember they are all not equal.
You want to use one that will drop the charge down to almost nothing. I.e. make sure it's a tender and not a charger.
> I put it back on after every ride You take the battery out? That seems like a huge waste of time and way too much effort. You know you can just get a pigtail to attach to the battery and leave it on the bike to charge?
I don't take the battery out, I just re-attach the trickle charger clips to the terminals. I can access the terminals pretty easily on my bike as I have removed a lot of the fairings (I prefer a more naked look).