Antigravity AG401 is half the size and works great. Had zero issues in my last Himma with it.
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Battery Woes
- Thread starter NewEnglandHimalayan
- Start date
Kiwiscoot
Well travelled
- Location
- Christchurch, New Zealand
Nahhh, don't worry. Buy the thing, check it over (tighten bolts and remove, clean, refit, grease battery terminals), grease head stock bearings and droplinks and ride the thing. 17600 kms here. To many people here over worry( over think) things. It is only a simple bike at a low price, so just go over everything yourself and all is good. 14 months in and my Himma starts first go every time, even -5C New Zealand South Island winter mornings.
Wintrup
Well travelled
- Location
- Cumbria UK
Not so sure mine is shot now. Likely it's just the constant stalling and short trips depleting the charge.
Kiwiscoot
Well travelled
- Location
- Christchurch, New Zealand
Why is your one stalling? Does it stall even when hot? A depleted battery can cause this on idle as EFI needs a good battery voltage.
If the battery voltage is over 12V then....
Air leak in the inlet manifold? These bikes are tuned pretty lean from OEM and needs a good warm up. My carburettor model was like that until I tuned the carb better. Also it used to stall when I pull the clutch in at speed. Your EFI is probably tuned very lean too. Your dealer should sort it out.
Wintrup
Well travelled
- Location
- Cumbria UK
The stalling is an issue with a lot of EFI Himalayans and mine especially. Since the damp cold weather here it takes a long time for the bike warm up and to run smoothly. I think you're likely correct though and it does need tuning. This is what I hate about EFI, that I have to rely on a dealer to tune the it
Wintrup
Well travelled
- Location
- Cumbria UK
In this article from a French blog he writes that there's a 4 mA discharge when the bike is left standing. Why this is isn't apparent, but this accounts for the problem. He suggests disconnecting the battery or putting it on slow charge when you know you'll not be using the bike, which is a pain tbh. A bigger capacity battery would be nice, but then the OEM is such a tight fit...
motohimalayan.wordpress.com
Votre batterie est à plat ??
On lit régulièrement sur les pages et forums consacrés à l’Himalayan que certains se retrouvent avec une batterie à plat ou trop déchargée pour pouvoir démarrer, le plus souvent après un arrê…
motohimalayan.wordpress.com
sqeeezy
Well travelled
- Location
- Southern Spain
I'm sure you could find a place for one of these, 4mA is truly a very small current, but if you want to leave your bike for a few months, get farkling.
Wintrup
Well travelled
- Location
- Cumbria UK
In my case it's a winter only problem. It's a combination of frequent stalling draining the battery, small infrequent runs not fully charging the battery and the cold weather increasing discharge. A solar panel is pretty redundant where I live in winter months and not needed in spring, summer and autumn. I just found it interesting that the battery is discharging without alarms or wotnot drawing charge.
sqeeezy
Well travelled
- Location
- Southern Spain
Fair enough, I actually just fired that off thinking it was one of the guys in the US leaving the bike alone for a few months, not someone who lives oop north. My bad. Bugger that you've still got a stalling problem.. oops I mean issue. Mine was irksome in summer here but is sound just now, hasn't stalled for ages. I do have an iridium plug and a homemade air filter on now, dunno if there's any connection? Good luck in the filthy weather just now.
- Location
- The Pacific Nothwet
A heads up on Anti Gravity. Their policy on warranty is they only warranty their products when purchased through official AG retailers.
Genuine AG products sold through secondary retailers or sold though sub companies owned by distributors are not covered. We found this out the hard way when there was a bad batch of AG product a few years ago. Many inmates were disappointed. Email AG before buying to confirm if the retailer is official or not before buying.
Genuine AG products sold through secondary retailers or sold though sub companies owned by distributors are not covered. We found this out the hard way when there was a bad batch of AG product a few years ago. Many inmates were disappointed. Email AG before buying to confirm if the retailer is official or not before buying.
In that post, he says that when you leave the bike for a while without riding, just removing the negative from the battery will help keep the draw he measured from affecting the battery. Is that true?In this article from a French blog...
Votre batterie est à plat ??
On lit régulièrement sur les pages et forums consacrés à l’Himalayan que certains se retrouvent avec une batterie à plat ou trop déchargée pour pouvoir démarrer, le plus souvent après un arrê…
I'm asking because I don't have a way to keep the bike on a tender, no outside plugs. In the winter or long stretches of time, I pull the battery and keep it on the tender inside. If I'm gonna park for a week or 2, I'd like to let it sit, and just pull the negative to help keep the battery healthy. Is that a good idea or a waste of time?
My battery is also toast now, I get a hint of a crank then it doesn't start, apparently fully charged (according to tender). If I need a new battery, I'm considering a lithium one as it would be MUCH easier to remove after riding and bring inside. If I DO upgrade to lithium, would the same thing apply with removing the negative in between rides?
Last edited:
NewEnglandHimalayan
Well travelled
- Location
- New England
Definitely, removing the negative cable will help in preventing the battery from being drained. I jave read of some people using lithium batteries but Im not sure how well they do in cold storage
Ok, then I'll start doing that! Not too much of a hassle to pop the seat and disconnect the negative. Does that simply work because you've broken the circuit?
NewEnglandHimalayan
Well travelled
- Location
- New England
Yes. Note that you will have to setup the clock every time you re connect the battery and the bike may take sometime to relearn but should not be a problem
sqeeezy
Well travelled
- Location
- Southern Spain
1) you can remove either positive or negative: because most systems are negative ground/chassis it's safer to take off the negative lead in case you're clumsy with the wrench
2) if you're going to leave a lead-acid battery in cold conditions it's better if it isn't flat
3) what's described as a "parasitic" drain or draw in the forums (around 3 or 4 mA) is really a low current, but it will completely flatten your 8 Ah battery in 2000 hours, so yes, it's a good idea to take a lead off. I use my Himmie as my primary transport: my little-used Land Rover Disco II has a parasitic draw of over 100mA which will kill the battery in a week so I keep the battery disconnected as life's too short to fix the sodding thing, (ABS solenoid or something).
4) Lithium batteries are fussy about how they get charged and I assume if they're sold for automotive use they will have some sort of smart charging/discharging control built-in, I haven't researched it though.
5) A small solar panel, even in mediocre light would probably be enough to balance the few mA drain, if you inclined that way.
Good luck.
Perfect, so I'll disconnect the neg lead if I'm not gonna ride for a little bit, but in the winter (North West USA, ours are wet but usually mild) I'll remove the battery and bring it inside to be on the tender, as I'll likely not ride for longer stretches.
You know, I've thought about the whole solar panel thing before. What would that kind of set up look like? Would I need to get a whole little system set up, and hook it up through a tender? Never messed with solar tech, but have been curious about it.
Yeah, It's annoying but I usually have my phone on a mount if I need to check the time. I actually set the clock once, but I was removing my battery so much last winter that I still don't have the clock set! Compass always seems to work fine, but I rarely even use that, generally have GPS up on my phone.
AK Mike
Well travelled
- Location
- Skagway, Alaska
There are a number of cool little solar battery tenders out there and I have a couple of them. Anything from 1.5 to 3.3 watts should be just fine. The "amorphous" kind are preferred for this application since they don't require direct sun, nor intense sun to do a decent job. Here is the last one I got from Amazon...
I was using one of these this past summer on my Himmy, and it did OK. But in the end, I decided to just disconnect the negative battery lead at the end of each ride, and reconnect it when starting out again. Not that big a deal, but I would ultimately like to figure out what the heck is going on with the battery discharge. If I leave it for more than 5 or 6 days, it will go flat.
I'll start with disconnecting the battery for now, but for $30 I might end up grabbing that solar panel. If it's going to just be a day or 2 between rides rather than a week, I can just hook it to the panel to be safe. Did you just plug it straight into the motorcycle's pigtail, or did you hook it up through a tender somehow? No worry about being hooked up to the panel for a few days at a time?
AK Mike
Well travelled
- Location
- Skagway, Alaska
You just plug it directly into the bike's SAE pigtail that you would normally use for a maintainer, (not through a maintainer). When you plug that pigtail into a solar connection, you'll have to also use an SAE polarity reverse adapter between the solar panel lead and the battery's pigtail lead... like this one … https://www.amazon.com/Sunway-Solar-Connectors-Disconnect-Maintainer-3Pack/dp/B07GPGPTFV/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=battery+sae+reverse+connector&qid=1602800839&sr=8-3
And no worries about being hooked up to the solar panel for extended periods. Works just like a battery tender and will only charge the battery when required.
Hope that makes sense. Very simple and effective. Great to use on a car that will sit for a long time as well.