Well I've had my Harley Road King about 4 months now but due to Cancer surgery I've only been able to ride it a few times recently. This is now the 3rd occasion where the battery is flat and I know a few of them are my fault.

Scenario - I ride the bike and at the destination use the kill switch to stop the engine. As its a keyless fob bike I keep just walking away without turning off the ignition switch and the power drains rapidly. I know I shouldnt but as I dont need to take the key out of my pocket its so easy. I went to go on a group ride yesterday but when going to start the bike it was completely dead and once again I noticed I had left the ignition switch on.....

Now I know its my fault but surely with a keyless ignition It should shout down if the key is not near the bike for a certain time!!! Is this how it works or is there something I can configure if not I can see multiple flat batteryies ahead and the bike will have to go which is a shame as I like it.

The next question is has anyone ran and extension lead from their battery so I can jump start it easily if it does go flat again as the battery on the 2014 onward is hidden away and not a 2 minute just to get to the terminals on the battery.

Any help and advice much appreciated as I'm quickly loosing faith in the bike and bought it to take me on a 50 state tour when I retire in a few months. I've seen threads for replacement batteries and will order a new one up as this one has always been suspect (wouldn't start when I picked it up from Mancuso SW in Houston).

Many thanks in advance.

AndyT

 

I really think you just need to get into the habit of turning it off with the ignition switch and not the kill switch. It wont take long to get used to, you just need to develop the muscle memory then you'll never think of it again. I NEVER use the kill switch just for this reason.

 

The FOB being away from the bike doesn't shut it down. There isn't a "setting" to change that. You can start your bike in the garage and drive off with the FOB sitting on your workbench. Won't have any problem until you turn it off (that's why you should know your override code). You just need to get in the habit of turning off the ignition.

 

Once you run a battery dead it never charges back up to the same level as before. Running it down more often just takes even more out of it. Since you neglect to turn the ignition off I believe you have destroyed the battery. Replace the battery, turn off the ignition when you shut it off and you will have a bike that will start the next time you want it to. Harley's are not like newer cars that energize or shut down with a key fob.

 

I know thats the real answer but doesn't help me when I'm miles from anywhere with yet another flat battery :-(

I'll have to keep trying to get into the habit but its so hard as my car is keyless and shuts down but it does force me to do something unlike the Harley

I've bought a mini jump start kit and will wire in remote battery terminals so I can use it if required without the hassle of taking all the bits off above the battery.

Thanks anyway, Just off to order the replacement battery.

 

Not being a smart *** here but are you sure your car shuts down due to out of fob range? Or should I ask what do you consider shut down? My keyless car will let me drive all over without the fob in the car but will not shut the engine down. It's a safety thing. But once I shut it down, that's it. It does tell me that there is no fob.

Now back to the Harley. In my opinion there should be a warning of some sort of warning that the fob is out of range but Harley isn't that evolved yet. Learn the bypass procedure and practice it at home. If the code was never changed the default code is 11111. Look in your owners manual on how to access the code and change it to your own code. If you do not have an owner manual let me know and I'll send you pictures of the process. This won't help you relearn your shutdown routine but if that fob battery dies you'll be glad you learned the bypass procedure.

 

Had a buddy that did the same thing. Way we fixed it was to tape with red tape the ignition kill switch so he couldn't just tap it and turn it off. It would work if he really pressed on it but it was enough to remind him to shut it down via the ignition. Took about two weeks to learn the new habit. Just for kicks we took the tape off on a ride one day. Was over a week before he noticed.

 

On my old BMW which I no longer had you are correct that the engine would keep running and as I believe in honesty I did use the remote to lock it walking away but didn't notice the normal beep from the horn. When I came out of the restaurant i walked up to the car and it was still running..... I traded that for a 2015 Corvette and if I leave the car with it either running or unlocked it beeps the horn to remind me.

I guess as I said above its up to me to remember and the red tape trick is a good method which I will pursue. I still think its a design flaw as I could walk past a row of parked Harleys and turn the ignition switch on them all and drain their batteries. Now I know you can lock the ignition switch but why have a keyless fob if you need to lock it with the key........ technology for technology's sake if you ask me.... bring back the key

 

Think of the ignition switch, with the fork lock as the key.

IMHO, the FOB is not technology merely for technology's sake. The FOB is merely a security enabler/disabler.

 

Motorcycling is so hard.