Battery Issues

The other day, I was heading out to a meeting. While I was getting into my bike kit, my OH said he'd get my bike ready (cover off, unlocked, turned over). I'd just come downstairs and he told me to scrap my plans - the bike wouldn't turn over. The battery was so dead that the reallies wouldn't even switch on...not a good sign. I changed again and took the car.

While I was out my OH (he's a total star) took the battery out of my bike and placed it on charge. That didn't help. On my return, we took the battery off charge and placed a voltmeter across to test it. During testing (about 30 seconds) we saw the voltage drop. The battery was bereft of life; dead.

The following day my OH phoned a local motorbike dealer/repair shop to check they had batteries for a Honda Hornet in stock. Yes - 10 in stock and £33. Prefect.

Just to be sure, I took note of the battery code for the battery which had been removed from my bike. That's when it all became interesting...

As a little aside, other than slightly larger wheels (17" up from 16") and a slight frame change to take that into account in 1999 (1 year after the initial launch of the Hornet), there had been no major change of the Hornet until the new Hornet was launched last year. With that logic, I would have thought all hornets would have the same battery.

I went into the bike dealers and asked for the battery by code - YTZ 7S. The salesperson didn't recognise the code, so asked what kind of bike it was for - 2002 Honda Hornet. She said that she'd never heard of the Hornet having that battery, but checked the parts book to be sure (I may have written down the wrong code). No, the code I'd given her was correct. Bizarrely, the only Hornet model year which took that battery was the 2002 model. The ones before and after take a YTX 7LBS, which apparently is in half the motorbikes in the UK!

The salesperson was totally confused. Why would only that model year have YTZ 7S, when all others had YTX 7LBS? She checked the dimensions of the two batteries, and their ampage. If they were the same, I'd buy the battery that fits all other Hornets. Unfortunately, the height of the common battery is 27mm taller than the one which came out of my bike. It looked as though it wouldn't fit.

Given what I know about the Hornet, I thought this really odd. Why would it have been necessary to change the size of the battery box for 2002 only? I decided to go home and check the dimensions of the battery and battery box.

The battery's dimensions were correct with those quoted in the parts book. Right, looked as though I'd have to order the same battery as had been removed from the bike. That was until I inspected the battery box. For some bizarre reason, known only to the people in the Hornet factory, there was a piece of rubberised foam (about 1" thick).

My OH popped back to the bike dealer for the YTX 7LBS battery. The rubberised foam was removed and the new battery fitted. What a palaver.