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Optimate 4 CAN bus battery charger By Bill Wiegand #180564


IN THE RUSH TO FARKLE OR GET A new bike home, too often it’s the necessities that get overlooked and are not purchased. Maybe it’s the ser- vice manual that gets you acquainted with your new motorcycle’s needs and how to address them, or perhaps it’s the long overdue helmet needed to replace the relic you’ve been wearing since the first Bush administration. For too many riders, it’s not until they turn their ignition key and hear only silence do they realize they’ve never bothered to care for their battery as they should have. It’s an easy compo-


nent to overlook. Typi- cally out of sight and out of mind as long as your bike starts, a rider is led to believe that all is good. While the bat- tery in your car can go for years without a sin- gle thought, the battery in your motorcycle isn’t as lucky. Examining how we


use our cars compared with our motorcycles we can begin to understand the greater need to maintain the batteries in our bikes. But first, some basics. Today’s Lead Acid battery uses the same basic principles our great, great grandparents enjoyed. Basically, housed within the battery case are lead plates swimming in a sulfuric acid and water solution called electro- lyte. It’s the electrolyte that causes the chemical reaction between plates


22 BMW OWNERS NEWS December 2015


batteries” and are more expensive than their wet cell cousins. The payoff is that AGM batteries typically last longer than the others, are safer and hold their charge better. Normal aging takes place as the battery


goes through its normal charge and dis- charge cycles.


This aging process can be


speeded up by many factors, including deep discharging, heat, vibration, fast charging, over or undercharging, and resting at a less


which, in turn, creates the electrons and thus, power. Wet Cell, Gel Cell and Absorbed Glass


Mat (AGM) are types of lead acid batteries. Wet cell batteries are available as service- able (you buy them dry and add acid) or maintenance free (sealed) batteries. AGM batteries are typically considered “specialty


than full charge. Batteries will eventually die when the active material in the lead plates can no longer create a discharge current. Despite normal aging and the variables a


rider can’t manipulate, storage charge level is something he or she can. To maximize their lives, lead acid batteries should always be kept in a fully charged condition which can be dif- ficult if the motorcycle isn’t ridden every day or worse, sits for months at a time in a cold garage waiting for spring. To sustain a fully charged condition, a battery charger should be in every motorcycle owner’s garage. Chargers have come a long


way since the days long ago when I remember my father pulling the batteries from his V-twins each fall and moving them to the workbench next to the trickle charger. I can still see him religiously mov- ing those alligator clips of his trickle charger back and forth between the two batter- ies until spring finally came and he’d reinstall them. Wanting to minimize the


number of leads attached to my XRs battery while being able to maintain its charge


level via the CAN bus controlled 12V power outlet is what initially drew me to the Opti- mate 4 CAN bus charger. The Optimate 4 CAN bus version, which I spotted on the Wunderlich website, is a smart charger capable of being connected to my battery for extended periods of time while main- taining the battery in a full charge state. Using the charger could not be easier.


Simply connecting the charge lead to a standard BMW CAN bus outlet, the


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