On vehicles red is universally positive and black negative.

Perhaps you got them mixed up? Battery installed backwards?

 

either your wires got crossed, unlikely. or you have been buying the wrong battery. batteries come with terminals in either configuration. so you may have bought the right battery in size and amps but the wrong terminal configuration.

for a quick example this battery YTX14L-BS the L is for the polarity location. off the top of my head i forget which way it goes, but it also means that YTX14-BS would be the same battery with the terminals reversed.

and for the bike side if there is any worry about the color of cables are wrong. the red should go to the main relay the black to groud. easy to see.

 

I don't know how to explain this or how to even say it... My terminals were crossed from dealer "purchased bike new" the battery still started the bike and I rode maybe 2k miles like this even jump starting it in when they were backwards.. Might the original factory battery of been mislabeled? I'm not a rookie at this as I have done over 100 electrical jobs and this was definitely a first for me.. I just don't know how i would jump start it when they were crossed.... Mystery of the universe I guess

 

just follow the cables back to find the ground/positive lead and identify them as appropriate. its a good point that you could have the incorrect battery (configuration).

as a professional avoinics tech (airplane electrician) i can say it happens. ive seen some weirdo shit, my friend. ive even burned up an entire ignition system because of one mislabeled wire. its not difficult to get wrong when 90% of the wiring is in conduit or the same color.

 

It's a 2013 it was the last in stock at a super crazy price. the oem battery it came with was the YTZ10S, it was definitely mislabeled and is now running fine, but I had to do a lot of rewiring to get them right as cables didn't reach the proper terminals and I replaced old battery with identical one plus went through 3 50amp main fuses trying to connect it how it came from dealer, bike is still under warranty as I bought it last December of 2014 so Ima take it to get looked it just in case and they can fix they're **** up properly, my only question is how in the hell did it even turn on b4 when it was backwards? and what should I be worried about aside dealer negligence

 

Not the first time a battery was installed wrong.....
The battery is a sealed -
AGM battery, and if you install it with the top of the battery up, the terminals are in the wrong place. It should be installed on it's side with the 'top' facing reward. the terminals will then be in the right place in relation to the positive/negatives on the bike.

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if the cables are backwards it will not start. it will pop fuses just like you said it would. so the battery is wrong (the markings) or the wiring changed.

forget what the battery posts say, take a digital multimeter to the posts and see what is what. if you have red (of the DMM) to the + and black to the - it will read normal. if they are reversed you will read voltage but have a - infront of it. thats a sure fire way to know what post is what.

also follow those cables. i am curious if they are switched.

certainly the dealer will take care of this. just my curiousity

 

Might need to be mounted sideways. I just bought a replacement AGM battery for my bike from Motobatt and it wouldn't fit in there the regular way (too tall). I flipped it and sideways mounted it for a perfect fit and it's actually better this way because it's easier to get at the terminals with them on the side of the battery than on the top.

You should get a multimeter and verify that the red (hot) side is actually power and not ground and then mount it however it needs to be mounted to allow you to connect it to the proper cables.... assuming it's the right battery for your bike. Make sure you didn't get some cheap knockoff battery either. There are a lot of people selling knockoff batteries on Ebay for real cheap that claim to be the same part number as our OEM ones, but are not. They usually look different too once you get them, but the pictures online might be of an actual YUASA.

 

... just as a heads up, batteries in these bikes are supposed to be installed on their side. They are not supposed to be installed 'standing up'.

 

My OEM battery came standing up though. It was never removed from the bike and just came that way. I assume they dealer put it in that way when they prepped it for customer pickup.