Current Harley batteries are AGM AFAIK and they are widely available from other brands, so easy to find. I had an Odyssey a few years ago, with an own brand tender and the darned thing died shortly after the warranty ran out! Replacement Harley battery is still going strong.

 

My bike has been giving me some issues when starting recently. Previous owner had work done to the motor, so I think the stock battery may not be cutting it anymore. I have her on a battery tender after every ride (which is pretty much daily in SOCAL)...my bikes info is in the sig line...any recommendations?

 

You didnt say what kind of issues youre having, but check all the battery cable connections and the grounds, make sure they are clean with no funk growing. Than I would load test the battery, anything less than 9.6 in an automotive battery is no good. If a connection looks bad, check for a voltage drop across the connection, than clean it and seal it. If everything looks good and the issue is the starter just turning slower or more laborious thats an indication the battery is too old.

 

My bad...so...sometimes when I start, it takes about 3 revolutions, if itll get that far before the loud BANG! I notice that if I forget to put it on the tender over night, she is slow to turn over in the morning...most noticable if I come home from work on Friday and dont start her up until Monday morning. Also...when she doesnt start until the 3rd revolution, my instrument display will go back to the ODO display no matter where I had it, and the gas guage readout will say its LO for a couple of minutes while it resets. Ill do the load test when I get home today...its raining out, so I brought the car in. Ill put some leads across the terminals and see what I get.

 

My bike started doing that (more labored crank) after I put my PCV on. I was wondering if maybe adding extra fuel to the idle circuit even though theres no excessive gas smell at startup indicating an overly rich condition. My batt is only 1 1/2 years old and been on a tender since day 1. Im not convinced my situation is a batt going bad even though it sounds a lot like what t h e OP is describing.

 

Slow and/or labored cranking is a sign that the battery is weak and failing unless the low charge condition is due to a bad voltage regulator. Voltage regulators usually go fast once they start going bad. Easy to check the VR output across the battery terminals with the bike running. Should be at least 12.5 volts I think.

Usually a bad VR will cause the battery to be almost totally dead so if you are needing to have it on a tender every day or it starts weak I'd strongly suspect the battery. Take it to an auto parts store or Sears and have them load test it after fully charging it.

 

voltage across battery should be 13.5 min.