So we have been Helpx'ing for the past week and a half in the south west of Spain in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately we had a falling out with the host of the vineyard we were volunteering at as we were being asked to work much more hours than what was first requested. Communication broke down and we had to leave pretty much straight away. You can imagine how much of a clusterf-ck it was when the bike didn't start.

Knew it was a dead battery straight away. I have a Heine Gericke charger, I tried caring it for an hour and a half while we packed our things together. No dice, the battery was reading 11.7 volts and when I unplugged the charger it wasn't even registering 0.1 amps.

Tried to start, no dice, went online and read this thread in the only internet cafe in town. Maybe we have enough charge to get for fuel pressure.

Went back, clicked on the bike, and we pushed it down a slight slope, it kicked over the first time I dropped the clutch but didn't keep going...

That gave us hope.

We pushed it back up the slight slope and tried again.

Raaarrrgh! The engine rips into life! Unfortunately at the same time the local constabulary were coming in the other direction in this tiny town.

They were trying to tell me to turn the bike off. No way was I planning on doing that so I yelled the situation at them in my broken Spanish and they had a chuckle, told me to put on my 'casket' as they call it, and left.


SO! It is possible to push start the bike with only the smallest of amps coming out of the battery. Hope this helps someone else out of a jam.

For more reference. The battery was at 9.5 volts when I started charging, the charger pumps out 0.8 amps, charged it for about an hour and a half and was able to push start off that.

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www.thegreatgallivant.com - video blog of my current year long trip around Europe on the F650GS Twin