Starter or battery

[davecb]

On my return from St Judes I stopped for gas. Went to start the bike, and when I hit the starter button, the starter just kind of started, then stopped, then the bike fired up. Next gas stop...Filled up, reset my trip odometer, pulled over for a break. Went to start the bike, and the same thing happened again. Made one more stop on the way home to add clothing...same thing again. Got home, turned off the bike, went to check the total mileage for the trip, both trip odometers read 0...and clock time was off. Next day put a voltmeter on it. 13.75 volts, turn key on, 12.5 volts...driving lights are on....hit starter button, 8.5 volts. The voltage drops seem considerably high. Tried it with the driving lights off and it didn.t make a lot of difference. Bike runiing is 14 volts so it is charging. The bike still starts fine, but am I looking at a near future problem???

[MiCarl]

Sounds like the battery is probably on its last legs. Pull it out, charge it, and have it load tested.

[GaryZ]

I believe when a battery falls below 9V when cranking the engine, the battery is no longer carrying the load and needs to be replaced.

[V7Goose]

From everything you posted, I would first suggest that you have a loose or corroded connection. Besides the cables on the battery itself, do not forget to check ground cable on the engine case. If you have completely checked those out (including physically scraping the cable ends and battery terminals), then you have a bad battery.

Goose

[saddlebum]

If you put the voltmeter directly on the battery and it drops to 8.5 volts then you have one of two possible issues either the battery is weak or the starter is drawing heavy as in bad starter. load test the battery if it passes a load test the starter is at fault if it fails the battery is at fault. If however the engine barely cranks over and the voltage hardly drops at all then you need to check your wiring for bad, loose or dirty connections.

[davecb]

It was the battery.... Thanks to all for your input...