But if the battery's flat just use the kickstart. Or have you got one of these modern bikes where they forgot to fit it?   That's the price of progress...                                                                                                                                                                              

Yippee it started, an no kick start. How long does it have to run for to charge battery??????                                                                                                                                                                              

Is no one there now --- oh well will phone a friend
                                                                                                                                                                             

hey Jansky, if you read Geoff's post further up he says you've got to get out on it for a good 10 mins or so to get the battery charged. Mat, nope aint got a kickstart on mine! (must admit though, I did have to go & check  )                                                                                                                                                                             

it is generally agreed a good 10min ride will restore the energy used to start the bike. Just letting the bike idle will work but not as well as riding it.                                                                                                                                                                             

Jansky,  Geoff is little a bit optimistic. If you cranked it over a couple of times to start it more like 15-20 minutes ride to fully charge, especially if you have one of those nasty modern contraptions with no off switch for the lights. Leaving it on idle will take forever to charge as most bikes alternators scarcely charge below 1500 rpm.

so following on from this seems as i have misplaced my bumper book of battery maintainance for girls, with a newish bike and new battery about how many times can i try to start it before it gives up the ghost?                                                                                                                                                                             

Yours is a bigger bike Julie and is liable to have a much bigger battery, so will stand a little more abuse.   That said, I still wouldn't recommend starting it over and over without giving it a decent run.                                                                                                                                                                             

abuse? dont know what you are implying ? i have noticed that it takes 3 or 4 goes to get started in the cold should this worry me? dont really know much about probs associated with winter start ups my 125 that i had last winter was fuel injected, the cbf has a manual choke and does not like the cold weather and anyway tis cruel and unusual torture to start the mini beast up for a few mins and the not take it out for a good thrashing, do you think that i  am, some kind of tease?

tis cruel and unusual torture to start the mini beast up for a few mins and then not take it out for a good thrashing   You may think that, but I couldn't possibly comment...                                                                                                                                                                             

ok, the optimate's worked a treat & it's now on trickle charge & nope, i didn't have to take the battery out have also ordered a new Clutch lever   **thinks maybe I should have ordered a few of em!!  **   However the weather here is pretty COLD  & we've had a flurry of snow, so am guessing I aint going out on her for a while yet!!!!!                                                                                                                                                                             

I managed to get mine out on sunday. I managed to last 17 miles to Gisburn before i turned round and came home. And that was my first ride since October! If my opinion is of any use to you, i start my bike every 10 days or so and let it run for 15-20mins. I stand outside with it and give it some long throttle bursts as if i was riding. I did the same last winter and it was fine. My mechanic(god love him) says as long as you run it long enough for the needle to move to normal operating temperature its should be enough to keep it going. He does recommend a ride round the block if you can, but the above is better than nothing. Stops yr carbs from gunking up. Obviously a good service(ooh err missus) is required before you start going out for proper runs, in march/april. I only use my battery charger when i've forgotten to start it for a couple of weeks, then give it a blast with the optimate overnight, and hey presto, good to go                                                                                                                                                                              

An optimate was the best thing I got for my bike I'd get yourself one