Battery trickle charging

Trickle charging means charging a battery slowly with a small current. For motorcycles it is mainly used during winter storage, when a battery left alone slowly discharges and alarms, clocks and ECUs drain it further. A deeply discharged lead-acid battery sulphates and loses capacity.

Modern smart chargers or battery maintainers are better than old simple trickle chargers: they charge in stages, then switch to monitoring and top up only when needed, so the battery cannot be overcharged.

Tips: use a charger suited to your battery type, as lithium (LiFePO4) batteries need a compatible charger or mode; fit a pigtail connector for easy connection; and store the bike, or the removed battery, somewhere frost-free if possible.