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insulate the kickstand

f14rio

f14rio

New member
a nice harley fella i know says he puts a piece of rubber on his garage floor and sets his bike's kick stand on it. he says direct contact with the concrete isn't a good idea. (current flow/battery discharge).

anybody here heard that?

fwiw, i have heard that you shouldn't store car batteries on a concrete floor. they should be stored on pieces of 2x4's
 
Some Harley riders will believe anything. Nothing to it.

The car battery thing was true at one time. However, the battery cases are now made out of plastic so it is not longer an issue. I have the original battery I took out of my 2001 Escape sitting on the floor on a battery tender. It is still fine and I use it when I need to run a sprayer, jump start something and similar reasons. The only reason I changed it was to shut up the lady who drives it. She didn't want to be stuck somewhere when the battery died.
 
Well... He WAS talking about someone who owns a HARLEY and I'm sure the fellow was looking for something to blame his current draw that was leaving his battery dead on..... :whistle:whistle
 
HD has a habit of designing old technology into their bikes.
I'd check the battery case to see if it's made of leather before storing it on a concrete floor. :D
Side stand on a floor though???
 
Actually, depending on the concrete, it's not a bad idea to park on a rubber mat. Unless you've got a vapor barrier under your slab, moisture can come up through it and rust your bike. It can be a real problem if you ride during the winter and have road salt stuck to it.

Throw a clear piece of plastic under your bike and leave it there for a day or two. If you end up with condensation under it, you might want to consider parking on something impermeable.



Sorry to piss on the Harley bashing, carry on.......:p
 
Wouldn't the battery already be in a tray with rubber mounts? Seems like the kickstand insulator is moot.
 
Ha, that's a new one. I agree that 40 years ago it might have applied, but no more. If that were the case then I would have gone through over 10 batteries in my 18 years and 164k miles with the same bike. So far, I'm on battery number four, for an average of one battery per 41,000 miles. That number would be far better if that expensive Westco battery had not suddenly died after less than two seasons.

Pure bunk. Ride the bike regularly, for at least 1/2 hour at highway speeds about three times a week is a more certain way to keep the battery up to snuff, and keep the bike exercised. A short five mile hoot across town to the local biker hangout is not the way to keep the battery up and active. Short in town rides actualy wear down battery life.

Another more sure way is to use a Battery Tender or similar device. It'll do FAR more than any rubber pad, and insure the battery is ready to crank the bike over.
 
A typical car/motorcycle battery is going to draw down no matter if it is hooked up, disconnected, on a concrete floor, or hovering in mid-air. It's a chemical process that causes the state of charge to go down in time and the only thing to do is periodically top off the battery with a smart charger like a Battery Tender.

Harry
 
f14rio said:
a nice harley fella i know says he puts a piece of rubber on his garage floor and sets his bike's kick stand on it. he says direct contact with the concrete isn't a good idea. (current flow/battery discharge).

anybody here heard that?

fwiw, i have heard that you shouldn't store car batteries on a concrete floor. they should be stored on pieces of 2x4's
Click to expand...


I'll bet he has deer whistles on his bike too..... :whistle
 
MotorradMike said:
HD has a habit of designing old technology into their bikes.
I'd check the battery case to see if it's made of leather before storing it on a concrete floor. :D
Side stand on a floor though???
Click to expand...

A leather battery case? Oh my gosh, you just thought of the next accessory in Harley's catalog. ;)
 
Somewhere in the forums in the last year or so, someone mentioned putting a piece
of carpet under the centerstand .
I think it was reduce the wear on the centerstand legs.

I put a piece of indoor-outdoor carpet where the centerstand always goes down in
the shop, It really does make getting it onto the stand easier. It tends to glide up
without the thud that I get if doing it on bare concrete.

Maybe if I could find an old Harley riders leather jacket to replace the carpet????
 
This is an old tale of no substance. As an electrical engineer I can tell you that you can park you bike on a earth-grounded steel plate and it will not drain the battery. The electric charge in a battery only flows from one terminal to the other. Connecting either side to the earth will not draw any current unless there is a path back to the other terminal.

The earth works as a return for commercial AC power because the power company drives ground rods into it.

This whole myth got started by English car guys who thought their positive ground cars would get dead batteries if the bumper touched a tree.

Scott Schifer
 
TinyTrains said:
This whole myth got started by English car guys who thought their positive ground cars would get dead batteries if the bumper touched a tree.

Scott Schifer
Click to expand...

So as an Electrical Engineer, I'm sure you know that ground is supposed to be (-)ve, positive volts will not flow in black wires, and Lucas Industries ruined British Leyland. :D

Edit: Holy crap, 1,000 posts and only 4 good ones, counting this one.
 
Bobmws said:
I'll bet he has deer whistles on his bike too..... :whistle
Click to expand...


And a traffic signal magnet...:brow

Great things for attracting $$ out of wallets ....

f14rio said:
fwiw, i have heard that you shouldn't store car batteries on a concrete floor. they should be stored on pieces of 2x4's
Click to expand...

That is done to avoid any battery acid residue on the case, or a crack leaking acid, from eating the concrete (calcium carbonate) making a nice white powder. It has nothing to do with electrics, only basic chemistry.


MotorradMike said:
So as an Electrical Engineer, I'm sure you know that ground is supposed to be (-)ve, positive volts will not flow in black wires, and Lucas Industries ruined British Leyland. :D
Click to expand...

Don't forget Jaguar and Triumph...
 
Real helmets have magic coatings to protect your brain from gamma rays.....

If you wear a fake beanie helmet gamma rays will pierce your brain....

If gamma rays start piercing your brain you get brain damage....

If you get brain damage you begin to think crazy things...

If you begin to think crazy things you soon think the floor is sucking electrons from your battery....

Stop thinking the floor is sucking electrons from your battery - wear a real helmet.

:rolleyes
 
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