Battery Charging on 05 R1200RT

[imeyers]

I just hooked up my battery charger to my 05 RT. It is the one that BMW recommends for the bike. It went through all of the stages on the charger from 0/3 to 3/3. The red hazzard light on the handlebar was lit while it was going through the stages. Now that it is in "maintenance mode" the red hazzard light is out. Is the battery being kept charged or do you have to plug it in and let it go through the stages every so often. If you can't plug it in and leave it, what is the point? Any help would be appreciated.

[TowJam]

I just hooked up my battery charger to my 05 RT. It is the one that BMW recommends for the bike. It went through all of the stages on the charger from 0/3 to 3/3. The red hazzard light on the handlebar was lit while it was going through the stages. Now that it is in "maintenance mode" the red hazzard light is out. Is the battery being kept charged or do you have to plug it in and let it go through the stages every so often. If you can't plug it in and leave it, what is the point? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Assuming you're referring to the TYPE-2 BMW charger that support the CANbus:

you can leave the charger plugged in and it will cycle as necessary to keep the battery fully charged - no need to replug it in. However, there's a specific process for hooking up the charger (and the documentation included with the unit doesn't spell this out.) In a nutshell:

 

1: Turn the ignition of the motorcycle to "ON"

 

2: Connect the battery charger to the ON BOARD SOCKET first, then connect the power plug to a 110 volt outlet.

 

3: Turn the ignition key to the "OFF" position.

 

4. At this point, you can leave the charger plugged connected to the bike and through some mystical and magical process, the system will periodically "communicate" with the charger that it needs to shoot some juice to the battery. (My '06 doesn't have the red hazard light on the handlebars so I see no indication on the bike itself that anything is happening.)

 

Hope this helps!