The past few days, the weather in the Philly area has been awesome, several 70+ degree days out of the blue, so I figured it was time to wake up the fleet, starting with the bike, but uhh, the bike was not starting. The battery was shot and no amount of charging was bringing it back. Finally digging into it, I realized the battery was 5+ years old, so I guess I got my money’s worth out of it.
I knew there was “some” trick to doing the battery on a V-Rod, and it took me a few minutes to remember what it was: the rubber band. Getting to the battery isn’t too hard, although it does take removing the entire airbox and velocity stacks. Once you get down to the motor you can see all 1130cc’s of love…
The interesting thing about Harley’s red-headed-stepchild the V-Rod is that it sorta breaks all the rules when it comes to Harleys, or motorcycles in general. Most bikes have the gas tank between you and the handlebars, and most bikes put the battery under the seat. On a V-rod the battery is actually tucked sideways underneath the handlebars, and where the gas tank should be is actually the airbox/air cleaner, which leads to the throttle bodies on top of the motor (see above). The gas tank? Under the seat!
The problem with the battery area is that they use a simple rubber band (aka bungee cord) to hold the battery down. This isn’t so much a problem when its all there, but it makes life really interesting trying to replace the battery. The band is pretty heavy duty and hooks to the bottom plate on either side of the battery via a couple rectangle loops. Did I mention the slot is JUST big enough for the battery and the band? I mean nearly-zero-gap-on-either-side big enough.
Getting the battery out isn’t too bad at all. What I generally do is get a large pair of needle nose pliers, and pull the band to one side to unload the loop, then just use a screwdriver or my fingers to pop it off. Easy peasy.
Getting the new battery in however, is HELL if you try to put the band on after the battery is inserted. It’s practically impossible – there’s little to no room to get any tools in there, even the needle nose won’t reach the loops very well.
That said, the trick I learned from a few posts on 1130cc.com is once the old battery is removed, hook the band over the two ears/brackets that the airbox cover fits into. The band is pretty tough to get around them but its possible. Once you do, try to move the loops at the ends of the band out a little bit; if they’re both fully hooked onto the plate, you’ll find it’s impossible to slide the new battery in. Once you manage to get the battery in, make sure your wires are out of the way, and carefully unhook the band off the ears and slowly let it back down onto the battery. Once you do, life is good and you can finish hooking up your connections.
(Caution – hook positive on first, and be VERY careful about not shorting the battery with your tools! I once slipped and shorted the practically dead battery on my previous bike, and the wrench instantly burned a line across my hand. Lesson learned!)
All said and done it’s literally a 20 minute job if you have all the tools handy.
Once I got the new battery in, the bike started right up. Since I haven’t ridden it since fall of last year due to some travel, I went through it, made sure nothing was loose, checked the air pressure in the tires as well as the oil. I’ll likely give it an oil change relatively soon. Took it out for a blast down Kelly Drive to burn off what little gas was left from last year, then topped it off with a fresh tank of 93 octane on the way home. It was 75+ degrees today here in the first week of April, so absolutely BEAUTIFUL riding weather! Be safe and have fun!!!
