I thought it was an HD assembly line install unless you know for a fact they put them in at the dealership. HD is the only bike builder that I've seen with a change port on them and I've owned just about every bike imaginable.

 

I've refabed a jumper line to accommodate the pigtail to give someone a jump. The exposed post is usually the negative if I'm not mistaken and if you are jumping two HDs or two bikes with pigtails all you would need is a healthy sized gauge wire with the correct polarity to give someone a jump. Not everyone has the tools at times to remove the seat and everything else thts in the way of the battery posts.

 

May be, either way it's a smart move. I'm just relaying what my dealer told me. That they furnish and install a Tender pigtail on every bike they sell. I assume the battery (if it's in the bike from the factory) is not connected therefore the mechanic doing the initial set-up would have to connect it.

BMW has had a factory mounted accessory/charge plug on practically all their bikes since the 1980's. It's not just a 2-prong, SAE Tender plug but an actual Powerlet socket. In the mid '80's they even furnished a charger as well, one of the first "smart chargers". They felt this was cheaper than warrantying batteries. Once they went to fuel injection and computers with a constant draw, electronic this and that, batteries were running down and sulphating after just a couple months.

 

Well if it's DEAD, you'll need a heavy 10+ amp charger to see if the battery is any good. The tender 1 amp ain't gonna do squat.

 

Despite what the above post says, I would strongly suggest another approach

If you have not already done so, I would suggest purchasing a 1.25 amp Battery Tender® Plus charger (or similar device from another manufacturer) and use it whenever the bike it going to sit for a few days. It can be plugged into your bike's battery indefinitely without damaging your battery and will maintain your battery at a full charge no matter how long the bike sits.

A smaller device such as the Battery Tender® Junior which puts out about 0.75 amp charge rate will also work but it will just take a little longer to recharge the battery.

Everything I have read through the years suggest that charging a motorcycle battery at a high rate is a bad idea. The link below from 1997 appears to discuss the older wet cell type battery and suggests that 1/10 of the battery capacity is the correct charging rate. That means if you have an 18 amp/hour battery, the highest charge rate should be 1.8 amps. Lower rates would still work but would just take a little longer. Higher rates can actually damage or destroy the battery.

A lot of people think that Battery Tender® brand battery maintainers are not chargers, only maintainers. This is not true. The Junior model will charge at a rate of 0.75 amps (750 milliamps) and the Plus will charge at a rate of 1.25 amps. Other brand battery maintainers will also charge the battery.

The advantage of using a charger such as this it that will completely charge the battery and then switch to a maintenance mode to maintain the battery at full charge. Some chargers will continue to charge at the set rate until you unplug them or turn them off. This can cause permanent damage to a battery.

http://www.mcnews.com/mcnews/articles/battery.htm

Below is a link to a page on Yuasa batteries web site that again suggests using a charger with 650 milliamps to 1.5 amps.

http://www.yuasabatteries.com/motor_battery.php

Another site discussing high rate chargers.

http://www.whitedogbatteries.com/batfaq.htm#faq3

Below is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) from Deltran's web site, manufacturer of the Battery Tender® brand of battery maintainer.

http://batterytender.com/resources/f...sked-questions

Below is a link to Battery Tender® use instructions. On page it is noted that they will not charge a battery with less than three volts. If your battery is less than three volts, allow it to sit out of the motorcycle for a day or two and see if it will recover some of the charge/voltage. A lot of the time a discharged battery will recover some charge. If it does go over three volts, then the Battery Tender® chargers will work. Hook one up and let it do its thing. If your battery does not regain some voltage, then it's time for a new battery.

http://batterytender.com/includes/la...ns_BT_Plus.pdf

I hope this information helps.

 

Great post!