2014 RT Limited Struggling on Starting, then the display goes to vertical lines! Could this be the battery going bad already?

[94gnatsum]

2014 RTL with a 2 year old battery. Always on battery tender when not riding. Here's my issue, when I turn the key on everything occurs as usual. you hear the fuel pressure etc, the warning comes up on the display, cycle through that, go to start, the first revolution seems to struggle. the display goes to vertical lines. After 1/2 second she starts up and runs find but I notice the pre start warning is back on my display.

Again, the bike runs great, shifts great. Clock seems to to be keeping up. My only recent mod, in the Spring, was a set of LED headlight bulbs from LaMonster garage.

Could this be the battery going bad already? Starter going bad? Got, I hope it's not a computer issue. Are the LEDs causing the start up issue?

I'm hoping someone has seen/had this issue before.

Thanks

 

[Snowbelt Spyder]

Vertical lines and the recycle of the display = voltage issue. The struggle of the first revolution pulls the voltage down. What kind of battery, how many CCA, was it properly charged during activation, etc, all play a role in that a 2 year old battery can fail prematurely. You might be able to save it with a full charge on a charger, not just a tender. Clean and tighten the terminal connections. You might consider a load test of it, but it sounds pretty straight forward.

 

[Mikey]

Like Snowbelt said this web site is full of posts just like yours and it is just about straight forward, your battery needs to be replaced! Get one that has at least 350cca's, make sure it's at full charge before you put it in, and if you're the type of person who rides every week for a good ride, do your battery and yourself a favor and stop putting it on the tender ALL the time! If you are going to leave it and not ride it for months at a time then sure, use one! If you do that, then you have a better picture of what's going on with your battery. Some people that do what you have done get their bike started, go down to the local gas station to fill up, shut their bike off, and then after filling, find it will not start again! When you see/notice your bike rolling over slower than normal at start up, it's trying to tell you something!!! If nothing else, clean your battery posts, put lock washer on the bolts, have it load tested, it will probably fail!! Good luck!

 

[JayBros]

My original battery began heading south in the fall, 2019. It began cranking slower but I had a Rugged Geek lithium jump start pack (actually had two of them but that's another tale) and one day running an errand it died in Wally World parking lot. The last thing that happened on the dash screen was it flashed a bunch of vertical lines, and then nothing, dead! The Rugged Geek got the bike started and returned home, jumped in the cage and went for another Yuasa battery.

 

[94gnatsum]

Thanks for the thoughts, I assumed it was the battery. My first battery lasted about 7-8 years, this one 2. When I bought the Spyder, the tech told me to always put it on the tender when not riding. Sometimes, I go 3 weeks between rides because of work, sometimes 1 day.
Again, appreciate the responses.

 

[Snowbelt Spyder]

Thanks for the thoughts, I assumed it was the battery. My first battery lasted about 7-8 years, this one 2. When I bought the Spyder, the tech told me to always put it on the tender when not riding. Sometimes, I go 3 weeks between rides because of work, sometimes 1 day.
Again, appreciate the responses.

Well, just a final note to you. The word Battery "tender" gets thrown around a lot and is fairly general in nature. But specifically, you can get a basic tender, that simply keeps a constant float charge on the battery. That type will typically kill a battery. Or, you can get a battery "maintainer", which actually cycles the battery through charges and discharges, all automatically, and minimizes battery sulfation. You can use those units almost continuously because they help maintain battery health. You get what you pay for. 20 bucks or 80 bucks. You might find one these to be a good investment, as well as others:

Battery Chargers Archives - OptiMate

optimate1.com