TRACK DAY WITH NO CHARGING
 

The regulator is dead on my 1998 748. I have a track day tomorrow at Cadwell Park on the full circuit and will be running on battery only. The battery is new and will be fully charged but will it last for the full day? Does any one know if there is anywhere to plug in a charger, when we did the DD rounds this year there where no garages available but not done a trackday there.

Mike

Doubt it will last the day especially if you are using the starter. If you have a generator (or can blag a connection to one), suggest you take a charger and stick it on charge between sessions. Also if you can get a push start, that will save a lot of juice.

I did a track day last week with a flat battery. I knew I was heading for trouble when I went to the garage that morning to load the bike up and found the Optimate red light was on. Usually it means the Optimate connections were not good rather than a battery problem.

Anyway, I take bike on a trailer to track days and when I got to Cadwell there was not enough charge to get the LCD panel working! I had taken a batteyr booster pack (12V car battery with some jump leads, very useful to have around) and I used that to start it. In between sessions I used the OPtimate having fixed the connection problem, but that didn't help much in the short time. I needed the booster pack to start for the first couple of sessions, but then the 20 minutes of track time provided enough charge to get started the next session. Only 1 start per session though without the booster, I couldn't have cut the engine in the holding area.

SO, I would say you might be OK f you do not ask it to run the start unaided too. Nip down to Halfords and buy a booster pack, they are not that expensive (car battery sort of price, about £40?), certainly not as bad as wasting a trackday. Hold that on the terminal when you start it and don't stop it in the holding area. Wait until the last call so you are not tempted to stop the engine while waiting. Could try and Optimate on a genny in between times to help out.

If you are passing anywhere near Nottingham (and have a 2-phase alternator) you are welcome to borrow my regulator (Its currently stripped out).

Keith

As you've probably gathered, no power in the paddock at Cadwell. Take a genny.

Where are you coming from? I am 45 minutes from Cadwell near Grantham - if you need a battery booster, or a genny for that matter, then you can borrow one.

Also, I might be able to put my hands on a spare regulator, but not certain. If it's like the ST2 regulator then I might have one.

Let me know.

Argos also do a good battery booster at a reasonable price - you could use that when starting the bike, hopefully conserving battery power.

Does any one do a trickle charger that could be connected to a car battery or ciggy lighter I wonder (for in between track sessions) ???

Good luck - Frank

I just sent an e-mail to Focused Events, they got straight back to me and it looks like they will let me use a socket in there garage to keep it topped up during the day. Thanks to everyone for the tips.

Mike

As a general reminder, if your regulator fails you can extend your riding distance significantly between charges by pulling the electrical connection to the headlight (located under the rubber cover.)

i had my regulator fail during a track day on my 916,

although i scrounged a charger to top it up between sessions, if ound it didnt really manage to put in enough between sessions, you can notice a steady decline in power towards tthe end of the session or at least i did, and at one stage i came in early as it was so bad, ifelt it couldnt be doing the bike any good. it seems that the injectors require quite a bit of juice, and this is what it seemed to be affecting.


you might manage it if you had a spare battery and a couple of chargers.

best of luck

Luckily for us Shazaam we have headlight on off switches on our bikes in the UK as we are allowed to ride around with our lights off in the daytime, although most switch theirs on for safety reasons after starting the bike.