I've often written that my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet "lives in the real world."
I have never sought to "baby" it.
As a commuter I rode it night and day, rain and shine, racking up, probably, 50,000 miles (odometer eventually broke).
I've tried to stay "vintage" to the extent that I feel guilty riding with my cell phone in my pocket. If riders got along without that in 1955, I should be able to do the same (but I don't).
But there is a limit. And I have finally crossed it.
Just because I ride a retro motorcycle, of vintage design (circa 1954), is no reason I shouldn't face the facts and buy a battery tender.
Everybody seems to recommend them, but I was stubborn and did without.
Still, I'm not a daily commuter anymore, and sitting idle between rides isn't good for a battery. When an otherwise newish battery started showing signs it was getting tired I finally did it.
I bought a NOCO Genius 1A battery charger and maintainer. I have no connection to that brand or to any brand of battery charger, but I do love this thing.
It's cheap and, thank goodness, it's simple.
It's about as idiot-proof as can be. This is important because I just don't "get" electricity. Once we get past putting fresh batteries in a flashlight, I'm usually lost.
Installing a new heat element in the kitchen oven resulted in a flash of lightning inside the oven, six inches from my face at the time. You really DO have to turn off the juice at the breaker, I learned. Lucky the screwdriver had a rubber handle.
Despite the simplicity of the NOCO Genius 1A I DID manage to get things wrong and initially set it for the wrong type of battery. This resulted in the lid blowing off the battery in my Royal Enfield Bullet.
Lesson: read and re-read the instructions until they are understood!
Fortunately no other harm seemed to have been done, and I replaced the lid.
Now I can go on vacation for weeks and come back to find that my Royal Enfield will start.
Or, at least, if it doesn't, it won't be the battery's fault.
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