85 K100rs w/full Gerbings?

[boofer]

My 85 K is my "dirty" bike and winter ride, usually. Last Feb. upon receiving my full set of Gerbings I set out for a little jaunt north. About 40 miles into the ride it started to miss and I knew I was running out of battery power. Unpluged and downshifted a couple gears and continued on for 5 miles before daring to slow and turn home.

All summer if left off of a tender 2 or 3 days, it would not start. No time to check it out. Now when the battery was pulled, sure enough, hairline cracks in one corner. Most likely the problem.

I believe this bike has a 480 watt alternator, with a good battery could it handle a full set of Gerbings? Full set pulls 165 watts. I suspect the battery was bad in Feb. Anyone know how many watts the bike needs to run?

Tim

[cjack]

My 85 K is my "dirty" bike and winter ride, usually. Last Feb. upon receiving my full set of Gerbings I set out for a little jaunt north. About 40 miles into the ride it started to miss and I knew I was running out of battery power. Unpluged and downshifted a couple gears and continued on for 5 miles before daring to slow and turn home.

All summer if left off of a tender 2 or 3 days, it would not start. No time to check it out. Now when the battery was pulled, sure enough, hairline cracks in one corner. Most likely the problem.

I believe this bike has a 480 watt alternator, with a good battery could it handle a full set of Gerbings? Full set pulls 165 watts. I suspect the battery was bad in Feb. Anyone know how many watts the bike needs to run?

Tim

OK. Wild guess would be something like 100 watts for the spark and ecu, maybe 70 watts for the lights. Probably about 20 watts to charge the battery. That should leave plenty for your Gerbings. Heated grips will draw another 45 watts or so. That would be around 235 from 480 or 245 left.

[Ridealot]

The book lists the max output of the Alternator as 460 watts. The alternator also achieves 1/3 of its maximum output at idle.
Just turn the Gerbing down or off while idling at stoplights. You have plenty of power to run it while riding and the revs are up. Riding two up my wife and I both run our Jacket liners and heated grips with no problem. Just use common sense on when to turn them off. I usually turn everything off a few miles before I get home just to make sure the battery is fully charged for the next start.

[CaptDistraction]

Hi,

I'm new to the K bikes, but I thought the 480 watt alternator only became available in '94. I don't remember what they had before that, but it would be less.

David

[Bobmws]

Hi,

I'm new to the K bikes, but I thought the 480 watt alternator only became available in '94. I don't remember what they had before that, but it would be less.

David

In late '93 it became a 700 watt alternator. They early ones were 460's.
Welcome to the Darkside, David. :wave