Starting A Motorcycle With A Dead Battery

Tip #241 from the pages of The Total Motorcycling Manual

Jumpstarting a bike, especially one that’s been sitting for a long time, is the easiest way to get going with a dead battery, and it’s no different from jumpstarting a car. You’ll need to use a pair of jumper cables to connect your battery to another vehicle’s battery.

First, remove the seats or sidecovers to give you access to both bikes’ batteries. Connect the positive (+) terminal on the dead battery to the live battery using the red cable ends. Next, connect the black cable end to the negative (-) terminal on the good battery. Finally, connect the remaining black cable end either to the chassis, the engine, or the negative terminal on top of the dead battery.

Start the dead bike. As soon as the engine starts, remove the negative cable first, then the positive cable. And never let any two cable ends touch each other, especially not a positive and a negative lead.