Fort Worth Motorcycle Riders

Reading a recent Facebook post from one of the esteemed online groups of Dallas Area Riders, I was surprised to see the comments I saw.

What does everyone else believe?

I'll explain my beliefs after a couple of days.

This should be good...

There is a small risk in damaging the bike, but I've done it several times with car off with no issues. The danger comes from the fact that the car is capable of supplying more current than the bike. However, unless there is something wrong on the bike, it will only draw as much current as it needs so there would be no need to worry.

What was the majority of the facebook post saying?

I've jumped both ways, no issues.

Off is the way to go, all it is is a bigger battery, the bike will only draw the amps it needs so it doesn't matter if the car battery has 5X the amount of amps.

I've done it before with the car running and never had any problems, because like DS said, as long as there is nothing wrong with the bike, it will only pull as much amps as it needs. I've even jumped a car with the bike a couple of times with no problems.

I think the biggest issue is getting full size jumper cables on the positive terminal on the bike battery without touching the frame and shorting it out. I've never shorted it before, but I'm always super careful since there only seems to be about an inch of space between the terminal and the frame on my bike.

Car off, don't clamp to bike battery, just touch to terminal and remove immediately upon bike starting.

stoney812 wrote:I've even jumped a car with the bike a couple of times with no problems.

Did that once as well, had to jump start the Viper with the Daytona 650 battery.

LonestarCBR wrote:Car off, don't clamp to bike battery, just touch to terminal and remove immediately upon bike starting.

What's the logic in that, they are both 12v batteries and unless the car battery is low on juice there should be no extra load on the stator

So good variety here. And I'm glad to see yall are smarter than the overall riders group.

The Facebook group was about 80% totally not safe to do, it'll fry your bike, etc. I only saw one dude who said it was safe regardless of vehicle on or off. Long story short, so long as you attach the cables correctly, there is no damage potential to a functioning motorcycle.

fixxervi6 wrote:

LonestarCBR wrote:Car off, don't clamp to bike battery, just touch to terminal and remove immediately upon bike starting.

What's the logic in that, they are both 12v batteries and unless the car battery is low on juice there should be no extra load on the stator

Simply to avoid damaging the bike battery (I'm assuming you meant the "touch to terminal" part).

I didn't say I was an expert, I just gave my take on what I thought was smartest.