Harley won't start...

[tim_holman]

All correct. The battery was dead. Pulled it out (the siren didn't even go off - poor thing!) and charged it for 24 hours. Back in the bike, now is fine.
My issue is that the garage I keep it in doesn't have any power, so winter months = battery death time.
Is there a way to remove the battery without setting off the siren so I can stick it on my Optimate? There's a big grey rectangular electrical connector on the fender underneath the seat - if I unplug this, does it tell the siren to stop?
Are there any issues not having a battery in an FXSTDi '05 for 6 months I should be aware of?

[Kiranerys-Jat]

tim why not get a charger that works off a solar panel

and put it above your garage i think this has been raised on one of che,s threads earlier this year

[Topefisher]

Originally Posted by tim_holman

All correct. The battery was dead. Pulled it out (the siren didn't even go off - poor thing!) and charged it for 24 hours. Back in the bike, now is fine.

The way to disconnect the battery so that the alarm dosn't sound is to turn the ignition switch to on before disconnecting the negative lead. The alram shouldn't then go off.

[tim_holman]

I did try a solar panel, but it didn't help much. (Just a £14.99 1.5W one from Maplins). I'm not convinced they're any good for this purpose unless I bought several of them and chained them together, or moved to California?

All the books say the ignition should be off before disconnecting the battery - are you sure this won't start hurting things? I was told by somebody that the siren could be disconnected by unplugging something somewhere?

[Limey_Dave]

With respect,I think this is enough on open forum about disabling alarms.

For power in garage get two lesure batteries so you can rotate them and an inverter.
Four strip lights and ocasional electric drill will last 2-3 hours so one optimate should run for weeks.
Bonus,get a low energy bulb 13 watts = 100 watts and wire up a batten holder.You can go down there in the dark and see it's still there.
Or polish it.

[tim_holman]

Good point...
If the previous comment of turning the ignition on (or to acc?) will work, and THEN removing the battery, I'm fine with that? I'm just wary of dealing with live circuits, not because of the electric shock potential, but because I don't want to fry any electrics or damage sensitive components!
Ideally though, would be good to leave all in situ and find a way to keep it charged. I know an inverter will drain a battery pretty quickly - two batteries and an inverter is going to set me back £100 and batteries don't like being run dry (as inverters will do).
It would just be nice if there were a simple way to remove the battery without the siren going off...