Hey gang - my bike's been sitting very lonely for a few weeks, and now the battery's dead. I've never had to charge the battery because I used to ride it every day. Anyway, only the positive terminal, as you know, is exposed. Can anyone help me out with where to connect the negative terminal? I don't hav to take the battery all the way out do I? Instructions, or if you know of any picture diagrams out there, would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Chad

 

Hook the negative charger cable to a good ground spot on the frame, the negative cable on your bike is grounded out on the bikes frame. A exposed bolt would work good. Just nothing that is painted or powder coated as this will block the connection.

 

Truthfully, you really should buy a shop manual. This and many other question swill be answered, many with pictures. And it is much more rewarding finding the answers yourself. Especially if you want to do other mods etc to your bike. Because hooking up a charger is quite basic stuff, although a fair place to start.

As far as where to connect the negative side of the charger, any grounded surface will be fine. Or just hook it up to the ground post on the engine, where the negative cable connects.

Really though, the battery should not go dead in a just a few weeks. You may have another problem, or a bad battery.

You could also hook up a battery tender to plug in your bike during extend periods of non-use.

 

Thanks that did it.

My guess is the battery is on it's last leg, as it's been slow starting for a little while now. It's 3 years old, so it may be done. But I'm going to try and squeeze the most out of it that I can. We'll see what the charge does.
Thanks.

 

A battery tender should extend the life of your battery quite a bit, and it is pretty cheap.

 

I clip the charger neg. to the rear brake rotor.

 

+1 on the battery tender-
my bikes both have "pigtails" (cords that sit under the seat and hang out just a bit, that i can plug the bike into so it stays charged when i am not on it)... makes it very easy to keep them fresh charged. i even have a car on the tender. tenders are designed to just trickle charge the battery when it needs it and then just monitor it when it doesnt.