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What do you do if your battery dies... What do you do if your battery dies...
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Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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  #1  
Old 6 Jan 2011
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How many amps at 12V does one need to run a modern bike? Is it possible to use a solar charger, from which one can get about 0.4A at 12 V to run a bike (without lights, obviously) in which the battery has died?
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Old 6 Jan 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Docsherlock View Post
How many amps at 12V does one need to run a modern bike? Is it possible to use a solar charger, from which one can get about 0.4A at 12 V to run a bike (without lights, obviously) in which the battery has died?
Without lights but with a functioning generator, it will run forever, even without solar chargers, but if the battery is disconnected you need a capacitor to filter out spikes that might kill your electronics and it could be very difficult to start the bike in the first place.
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Old 7 Jan 2011
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Originally Posted by pbekkerh View Post
Without lights but with a functioning generator, it will run forever, even without solar chargers, but if the battery is disconnected you need a capacitor to filter out spikes that might kill your electronics and it could be very difficult to start the bike in the first place.
The question is, if the generator is dead, and therefore the battery too, if the battery is left in place to act as a capacitor, would the output from the solar charger run the bike without the lights on i.e. would it power the fuel pump, injectors, ecu and ignition system?
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Old 7 Jan 2011
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Originally Posted by Docsherlock View Post
The question is, if the generator is dead, and therefore the battery too, if the battery is left in place to act as a capacitor, would the output from the solar charger run the bike without the lights on i.e. would it power the fuel pump, injectors, ecu and ignition system?
No, a solar panel of the size you describe is not able to keep the bike alive, not even the ignition.
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Old 7 Jan 2011
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Originally Posted by Docsherlock View Post
The question is, if the generator is dead, and therefore the battery too, if the battery is left in place to act as a capacitor, would the output from the solar charger run the bike without the lights on i.e. would it power the fuel pump, injectors, ecu and ignition system?
It still depends on the bike. How much curent it needs. There are many roadracingbikes that run a total loss system, i.e. without a generator, just a charged battery, but then they don't run all day.

In the tropics, you might be able to get away with solarcharging 10-11 hours and then maybe run the bike for 4-5 hours.
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Old 7 Jan 2011
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The solar panel is a cute idea .. lol...

The ignition and other bits will prolly consume 30-50 watts, so you're looking at about 4 amps - and you'd need a bank of solar cells 54cm x 64cm according to
Maplin anyway ...

Anyway - back to the original question, I'd aimed it at simply the battery failing with the generator still functioning and producing stable voltage.

This brings another question, if the VRR had died, then the generator will be making unregulated output (cooking the battery in the process) but will that output run the bike?? Will the dead battery be sufficient to hold down the voltage ..?

As I said, I'm just harking back to the days of my old - batteryless - Puch Maxi that ran quite happily and gave lighting... Being able to adapt a more modern electrical system to run without a battery would be quite handy if you needed it to ..


Or do you just pack up and go home...

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Old 7 Jan 2011
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Originally Posted by Gregorius View Post
..................
This brings another question, if the VRR had died, then the generator will be making unregulated output (cooking the battery in the process) but will that output run the bike?? Will the dead battery be sufficient to hold down the voltage ..?
If the dead battery is "cooked" i.e. without water, it will not conduct any current, it will be open circuit and if the voltage regulator is shorted, then you will "cook" all your electronics because of too high voltage, you might get by, in an emergency, by turning on all the lights blinkers etc, to keep the voltage down, but most voltage regulators have the rectifier incorporated, so if everything is burned, then you might have no voltage or only AC and modern electronics won't work on AC.

Some enduro bikes only produce 55W with a headlamp of 35W so ignition doesn't use much on these bikes. To find out how much current is needed, connect a multimeter in the A (current) position, in series with the battery lead and start the bike on the kickstart (the electrical starter will burn the fuse in the multimeter, or the meter itself) and see how much current is used and then calculate how big a backup battery you need.
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Old 7 Jan 2011
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A little research shows power consumption for FI system is between 1.5-5 amps x 12 volts = 18-60 watts depending on bike, fuel pump etc.

So a solar power system can indeed supply enough juice to run the bike, lights off; the voltage is a little high at 17 volts but connecting via a battery that is not so pooched that it has infinite resistance should run the bike....

LOL indeed!

I might rig this up just to prove the point....
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  #9  
Old 7 Jan 2011
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So this would provide enough power to run the bike without the lights...

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