Howdy All, Earlier in the month I did a fly and ride to bring home an 08 GSA. I stayed just below the first storms of the season and added about 120 miles of dirt to the 880 mile ride across the southwest. I'm in awe of and totally psyched with the bike! Now, winter is on us and I'm sorting out a solution to my storage conundrum. I have a secure storage space that I committed to before I got the GSA, so I'd like to utilize it, but it has no AC power, and no way for me to run a cord to a solar charging system. I've taken the recommended steps to prep the bike for spending much of the winter indoors (although I'm trying to convince my wife that a Copper Canyon trip would be worth taking some personal days from work!), but the battery maintenance challenge has me scratching my head, so I'd like advice from those of you with more experience in the matter. I've stored my other bikes (WeeStrom, Husaberg FE 450, '01 F650GS) in the same facility and just pulled the batteries, but they don't have the on board computer of the GSA. The bike came with a GS911, and I'm sorting out how to use it (we're Mac folks...). I found an old Droid, so I might be able to load the GS911 software on it, or I'm sure I could borrow a friend's PC and run it. Do you think I'm better off just pulling the battery and then resetting the computer with the GS911 or getting creative with a 12v charging/maintaining system? I have some good, 230 amp hour 6v AGM batteries from our camping solar set up. I've considered using them with a charger/maintainer like the IMAX 6B, which another inmate mentioned in a solar charging thread under Equipment. My theory is that I could throw it on the bike's battery every couple/few weeks to keep it fresh, and bring the AGM batteries home to charge as needed. From reading way too many threads on AdvRider over the years, I know that it's easy to get sucked in to seeking out the most complex solution to a given problem, rather than following the principle of Occam's Razor, but the IMAX is not too expensive and might be worth the price of admission, if the GS911 is somewhat of a hassle. If the GS911 is the way to go, that seems like it would be the simplest solution. If the 12v to 12v charging makes sense (I'm no electrical guru, so if I'm in danger of frying the bike or burning down the storage place, please let me know!), I'd give it a whirl and let you all know how it works out. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
So what part of the computer makes it not desireable to pull the battery? If anything it parasitically draws from the battery. By pulling the battery you reset trip and maybe a cpl other menial readings on your computer. I would pull it, keep it at home. You wont damage the electronics by doing so.
Just take the battery out...keep on a trickle charger at home. No problems. That's what I do. Happy New Year!
I've just bought an 07 GSA that stood for 8 month with the battery removed and on a battery tender. No issuses what so ever.
Thanks guys! I'd read a post on here somewhere in which someone came down firmly against pulling the battery, because it would cause the dates and maintenance schedules, etc to need to be reset. If this isn't an issue (or much of one), then life is good and I'll put the tender I already own on the battery. Ahh, simplicity! Thanks again!
What everyone else said, pull battery and leave at home. now for your other question GS-911 and mac.. I use VMware to turn on Windows to run the GS-911. You can use VMWare or Parallels. I got VMWare and windows XP through work since some of the software I need to program is only Windows friendly. But I've not had an issue running GS-911 through a VM Machine.
If you are really that concerned with pulling the battery and resetting the codes/clock/tripO....whatever else, then just take a car battery over there and use jumper cables to the bike battery for extra amp storage. Bring the car battery back home once a week for an over night charge and reconnect it the next day. I use a deep cycle 12v boat battery to jump my Jet Skis and bikes all of the time. A deep cycle would work well for storage purposes.
Alternative Option B2: Do nothing. Park the bike and walk away until spring. 31 years of riding and living in Minnesota, Utah and Washington state. Owned over a dozen bikes and 7 different brands. Only once did I ever do anything special when parking the bikes (A battery tender on the Harley) and only twice have I had to use a jump start to get them going in the spring (once, oddly was on the Harley with the battery tender). Sure it's a bit more exciting when you try to get them running and they cough a bit but it all works. I make sure to run premium gas to clean out the carbs but it's all good. We are a fidgety breed and like to do everything we can to take care of out babies but I sometimes think we over think things. Just so folks don't think I'm completely apathetic, I maintain my bikes more often than most and drive my riding buddies up the wall always double checking the tire pressure. Just don't stress it too much. You can always stop by once a month and run the motor for 20 minutes during the winter to enjoy the sound...
+1. VMware Fusion and Windows XP has been working fine for me to run the gs911 software. For a free solution, try VirtualBox instead of Fusion. It works on my Linux machine just fine, but I haven't tried the Mac version. In either case, you will need a copy of Windows XP though. Or Windows Vista or 7...
Thanks again guys. I've sorted out a GS911 solution and have pulled the battery. I'm all good. I figured it would only be a week or so before someone weighed in about riding all year. I'm only 9,100' higher than the IN Heartland, so things are a mite different in these parts. Thanks again for all the suggestions. I'm signing off from this thread...
