Just a bad battery or startus interuptus?

[tonUPRacer]

2013 V7 Racer, 1 yr old battery (one of those expensive lightweight lithium jobs). New voltage regulator installed in May after checking voltage was at about 15.5 at 3K. About 1K miles since new VR installed. Heat wave, noticed small delay on starter during the week (foolishly dismissed or ignored symptom). Then, rode bike to work hottest day of year, bike sits covered in parking lot temps around 95+. End of workday. Turn key, instrument sweep, fuel pump, and then nothing. Repeated attempts, same result. Check connections all good. Call wife for rescue. Roll bike into work garage for weekend storage because we are going to grandma's house for the weekend. Wife arrives about 30 min. later. I tell wife I want to try one more time.  Turn key, instrument sweep, keep starter button depressed for about 2 or 3 seconds and bike turns and fires up. Wife is ready to punch me, I am happy but perplexed. Ride home, no issue.

Bike sits for weekend, I test this morning. Voltage at rest 13.3. Turn key, instrument sweep, nothing. Try again and keep starter button depressed for second or two and starter turns, voltage drops below 12 and bike starts. Voltage goes up to about 14.3 at 3K. So is the battery just bad and needs to be replaced or is there something deeper lurking? Do I just go with a standard lead/acid battery? I don't think I'm ready drop another $200 on one of those lightweight jobs again.

[m13]

so many "fail safes" to start. have you tried the usual? flipping the kick stand , clutch, kill switch ...bad contacts in any of the "safety
" switches..can shut down starting circuit..That's all I can say.

[tonUPRacer]

so many "fail safes" to start. have you tried the usual? flipping the kick stand , clutch, kill switch ...bad contacts in any of the "safety
" switches..can shut down starting circuit..That's all I can say.

Thanks for the reply, I'll have to double check that clutch switch since I was niggling around there earlier in the day, why do I have to fuss with stuff? Kickstand switch has been disabled. Shout out to Leonardtown. Used to live in Loveville, rode with Pax-Velo and raced the Leonardtown Crit a few times! Love the area.

[pyoungbl]

Ton-UP....FWIW, I'm having a similar problem on my Stelvio.  From time to time the starter either just gives a click or there is a pause until the starter begins to turn the engine over.  I have a volt meter wired to the battery and can see the voltage drop down to as low as 10V when the starter is really slow.  My battery is 6 months old (not a LI battery) and I'm charging at 13.8~13.9V when at highway speed.  All battery connections are tight, as are my ground wires (Motolectric upgrade).  The next step is to do the startus interruptus conversion.

Oh, I saw Gary Eagan auger in his Multistrada due to a disabled sidestand switch.  Damn near killed him.  Be very, very careful.

Peter Y.

[Triple Jim]

Oh, I saw Gary Eagan auger in his Multistrada due to a disabled sidestand switch.  Damn near killed him.  Be very, very careful.

A friend in England died when he forgot to raise his side stand.  Admittedly it's a little more serious when you drive on the left, but still, a lapse of memory can be fatal with side stands.

[Penderic]

A poor frame lug ground connection will do that too.

[brenwin]

Ton-UP....FWIW, I'm having a similar problem on my Stelvio.  From time to time the starter either just gives a click or there is a pause until the starter begins to turn the engine over.  I have a volt meter wired to the battery and can see the voltage drop down to as low as 10V when the starter is really slow.  My battery is 6 months old (not a LI battery) and I'm charging at 13.8~13.9V when at highway speed.  All battery connections are tight, as are my ground wires (Motolectric upgrade).  The next step is to do the startus interruptus conversion.

Oh, I saw Gary Eagan auger in his Multistrada due to a disabled sidestand switch.  Damn near killed him.  Be very, very careful.

Peter Y.

My 012 Stelvio started doing that in early spring . Had the battery tested , checked all connections and all good . Just a little lag when engaging the starter ! Something I thought I could live with .
Of course total failure waited for me to start my trip down to the John Day gala when everything went dead just south of Mt  Vernon on the I-5 . The alternator was toast . I was very lucky as when towed to Moto in Seattle they had one on the shelf . Hope that's not the problem but very well could be as it took a while for it to totally fail . The bike had been running like a champ since the replacement . Hope you get to the bottom of it .

[yogidozer]

Come on, tell the truth, you just wanted attention from your wife! Buy her dinner, take her to a show. The bike will start up every time!

[Kiwi_Roy]

It sounds like SI to me, learn how to jump the solenoid with a short length of wire between the large hot connection and the spade connection and you will never have to call for backup.
I have read that those new fangled batteries need a kick in the pants to get their attention perhaps the battery woke up a bit but I suspect it was more likely a bad connection through the switch.
(actually not so much a bad connection as bad design by the factory, I'm pretty sure the ignition switch was never intended to carry 50 Amps)

http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/schematics/2013_V7_Series.gif
Item 14 is the key switch in question. Item 6 is the Start Relay, terminal 5 needs a better feed from the battery, I would wire it straight to the main 30 Amp fuse or a separate 20 Amp fuse direct from the battery.

A different V7 - Same applies but relays 36 & 37 are tied together, not too sure what will happen if the relay 26 pin 30 is left alive. Probably ok but would like to verify it.
http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzi007/schematics/2008_V7_Classic.gif

I sent you a PM

[tonUPRacer]

It sounds like SI to me, learn how to jump the solenoid with a short length of wire between the large hot connection and the spade connection and you will never have to call for backup.
I have read that those new fangled batteries need a kick in the pants to get their attention perhaps the battery woke up a bit but I suspect it was more likely a bad connection through the switch.
(actually not so much a bad connection as bad design by the factory, I'm pretty sure the ignition switch was never intended to carry 50 Amps)

Ah yes, the short circuit, I used to use a screw driver to jump the connection on my old Sportster, I should've remembered that trick!

[Doppelgaenger]

I've read in manufacturer literature that Li-ion batteries sometimes take a few tries to "wake up". Unlike lead acid, they don't produce their top cranking amps first try and go downhill from there, instead they produce more power as they are exercised and warmed up. This is usually when dealing with cold starts though, which I'm sure isn't the case right now.

The battery sounds like it's solid as far as voltages go, so I'd be inclined to go with startus interruptus. Bets are slightly off with the Li-ion battery though.