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Originally posted by Stevebr242

Tmonroe, good post. I wanted to make one more comment, though. The critical part of a maintanence system that is hooked up for long periods of time is that it is designed for that type of use. A normal trickle charger can accellerate the battery's end of life by causing too much transfer at the plates, where a smart charger with a desuphator will (if it works as advertised) stop and even reverse the plating action that can bring end of life. A smart charger is critical for batteries that are hooked up for weeks or months at a time. Keep the cheap trickle charger for overnight charges when a battery gets low.

Another note, on both my 99 ZX6E and my neighbor's 89 BMW K100LT, there are quick connects on the wiring harness that make it easy to charge the battery without taking the bike apart. They may not be obvious on some bikes, since they are just pigtailed out of the harness, vaugely in the neighborhood of the battery, but I bet a lot of bikes have them.

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