Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Battery Tender

It brings me great sadness to announce that last evening, at approximately 22:00 hours, I connected the battery tender to my beloved Speedmaster. This event marks the sudden transition from frequent to occasional rider. Rather than gather the family in the garage to share and support me in this time of grief, I chose to face the pain alone. I did not sleep well last night, even though I know that I was able to ride all winter last year to some limited degree, I have come to the realization that Mother Nature now plays a bigger part of when my riding takes place. Willard Scott and Vivian Brown will now become bigger parts of my life, as will the magazine racks.

I feel your pain man........
Plugged mine in last week when the temp dipped down in the high 30's for a couple of nights.
Fortunately it went back up after that but as they say, "Tis the season".

Yeah, it sure sucks. All one can hope for now is another indian summer or a faster global warming You're not alone in your pain (yeah, that sure helped...)

i am stickin it out for hopefully a week or 2. goiung to be a long winter

Frank

What's a battery tender?

i'll take a battery tender over a season of tropical storms/hurricans

Frank

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What's a battery tender?

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30 degrees...whats that, the slope of the hills in your area

Move to Arizona and "quit yer bitchin'" <chuckle>

I was born and raised in northwest Ohio. Used to ride my Cushman scooter in the winter, getting ice on my hair and eyebrows (and now have damaged sinuses to prove it). Thank goodness the family moved out to AZ in 1965!

Bad news is that the job market sucks here.

Oh, we don't have giant bugs, high humidity and hurricanes like Florida, but we do have great citrus (lemon, grapefruit, orange and tangelo trees in my back yard).

I know just what you nean, I unpacked my jacket liner last night. It's just a matter of time before it gets so cold I'll have to zip it in.

i'll take a battery tender over a season of tropical storms/hurricans

Not me! Tropical storms and hurricanes are just plain inconvenient, and can easily be avoided. Snow and ice are inevidable and can last for months and months depending on location. I've lived in Florida since '66 and have only been hit bad by one hurricane (Andrew), and that actually turned out for the better (better home and neighborhood after the insurance company paid for reconstruction, increased property values, etc..). I did a little over a year in Iowa, and the winter just plain sucked.. no escape from it either, you just had to sit there looking out the window waiting for it to all be over with. I'll take rain over snow and ice any day

The one good thing about living in a northern climate is the beautiful change of seasons. Except for the harsh winter, I really loved Iowa and the mid-west. The countryside is beautiful, the people are super friendly, the small towns are quaint and peaceful, and the lack of city traffic make riding up there a joy.

Cheers,
Brad

That is why I live in North Ga. Central Florida is just tooo darn hot and humid and any farther north just gets too cold. I rode all year round last year and expect to this year. Also the Noeth Georgia mountains beat the heck out of riding in the flatlands of Florida.

farther north just gets too cold.

I'm about 350 miles south of you as the crow flies.. and I did live and got to school in Atlanta when I was growing up.. I seem to remember it getting pretty darn cold up there.. nothing compared to Iowa, but enough to generate a light snow and frozen roads

I guess that's why there are tons of Floridians who have 'summer' houses up in the Ga/NC/SC/Tenn areas

Cheers,
Brad

OH FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD YOU BUNCH OF BABIES!!! GEEZ, sounds like a bunch of little girls crying over someone stealing their Barbie Malibu Beach Houses in here. Shoot, the German Army road around in the depths of the Russian Winter in 1941 on BMW Sidecar rigs, no heated Grips, no windshields, no warm houses to ride home to. Didn't see them crying (only cause the teardrops would freeze instantly causing even more frostbite than they already had in their hands and feet). Boy, next you guys will be wanting to trailer yer bikes to and from work or the store rather than riding....

Of course you are right Cold is relative to what you are used to or grew up in..

When we were moving back from Iowa, one of the moving company guys was complaining about the heat. It was somewhere in the 30's at the time, and I was freezing my arse off. I said 'Heat?? Man, where in the heck are you from?'. He told me that he grew up in northern Alaska, and he couldn't stand the lower 48 because of the warm winters. He looked at me and said, 'You want to hear about cold? I once had a 72 plymouth that I kept in my garage, along with an engine block heater to keep the thing from freezing up. One day, it was so cold, I got in the car, started it up, put it in drive and drove off the tires.. they were frozen solid and broke into pieces, leaving little patchs of rubber still stuck to the ground where the car had been parked.'

Now that is cold

Cheers,
Brad

Sounds like Russia alrighty! Was on patrol (in Subs) once off the coast of northern Russia in November near Murmansk, and we came up to periscope depth during the 28 minutes of almost daylight they have for 6 months during the winter (north of the Arctic circle), and the shoreline looked like the most dismal place a person could ever hope to be stranded (I would put someones chances of surviving more than 30 minutes without some kind of shelter at slim to sorry pal, your history) Not exactly sure what made the Germans want to invade that, but they soon found themselves building fires under the oilpans of their trucks (diesel engines) just to keep the oil from freezing, now that is FUN!!! The winters were part of the reason I moved out of the midwest. I didn't mind the snow, in fact rather enjoyed it when we got buried under some of the superdrifts we had in Jan of 78, but the long months of nothing but brown/grey, and then the nonstop mudbog that was March-May drove me crazy!!(not to mention the 80 below windchill from the wind coming down out of Canada with nothing but cornfield stubble to slow it down!)

One confused puppy.
Ride Safe,
Dennis

A Battery Tender is a trickle charger, that won't let you over charge your battery.

If there were no cold weather, when would we have time to add all those accessories we keep buying from Brent.

Bayern,

I think I better save my "cold" stories for mid January when severe motorcycle withdrawal sets in. I do remember a 70 mile ride home once when mother nature conspired a cruel joke with 8" of snow and I had to concentrate avoiding the slush keeping the T140 in the wheel tracks. I think that was stupid and ill-advised.

You've inspired me. On the bright side, I think I'll bundle up and go for a ride tomorrow. Can't beat the Fall colours

jh

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do some ice burnouts .... hold the front break and let er rip .... (just joking i wouldn't actually do this)

Battery tender? In October?

Geeeeez..

And after all I've done over the years to contribute to global warming... Where's your faith, man??

AHHHH Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia, Bikers paridise , COLD what is that

Barry,
Yep, I'm interested... thought about riding to South Park in the rain today just to find the ice skating area, but I've done wet and cold enough this week just riding to work.....

As usual, it will depend on the warden and life in general, but if I can make it, I'll be there...

What are these battery tenders everyone talks about? If I need to tenderize my battery, please let me know. At 3.5 years and 40,000 miles on the same battery, I might outta think about gettin' one.
Thanks,
Dennis

They keep your battery charged in the OFF season if you choose not to ride during then.

Plugged mine in a few weeks ago. The weather doesn't improve around here until sometime in July. We can get in some riding through the winter, but it's generally wet and cold. Bummer.

In upstate NY I usually plug mine in after they start salting the roads for snow and ice. I don't know if we're getting the effects of Wilma way up here but it's been raining like a SOB for nearly 2 weeks. (you south FL. riders would probably welcome just plain old driving rain to go for a nice ride in) HUH?

Battery Tender is even located in Daytona! Kind of mean of them to be in a warm climate if you ask me, so I got 3 generic ones at Harbor frieght for $5 each at their sidewalk sale. Have yet to use them: 58 degrees on Sunday.
Mike Sr.

with all the leaves falling at the moment and the fact its rained everyday for a week or more I'm seeing the end of my riding days for this year....well on the speedy at least.