Motorcycle Repair: HD Fatboy starting problem, maintainence free battery, garage austin

Question
Chris,

My 2003 HD Fatboy (1600miles) has sat in the garage (Austin, TX) for the last four months.  It was low on oil, so I filled it up and tried to start it.  The battery is fine.  It tries to start for a split second, then I get this very loud clicking noise.  
Can you please help?  Any ideas?

Cheers

D.

Answer
Hi D.

This does sound like a battery problem.  Any time that a battery sits for months at a time, no matter what the advertisements say, it will tend to discharge.  if you have a maintainence free battery, then you need to replace it.  If you have a standard battery, then check it with a hygrometer. You could have one or more bad cells or low fluid in the cells.  Just checking with a multimeter will tell you the volts, but a starter runs on amps, which a battery, while having volts a-plenty, may be short in the amps department.

A good test to check this is to start the bike from a car battery.  DO NOT do this with the car running.
If the bike starts like normal, then the problem (in this case) is the battery.

Good luck and ride safe.
FALCON