lo-jack is a battery killer. you must plug in your tender if the bike is gonna sit for than a day or 2. speaking from experience....... trust me.

 

What he^^^^ said and Their rep is full of shit! it doesn't take 13 volts but the battery cant drop below 10.5 when cranking. Low jack is parasitic it will drain the battery. keep it on a tender when not in use.

 

battery tenders are your friend!!...makes it start right up every time so far!! get one!

 

search my threads for start up issues. lots of useful stuff in there. it will give you some incite on the nature that is th 09-12 R1 start up issues.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I do keep it on a tender, the shop also had it on a tender the whole week it was there. Battery still dies/bike won't start. Shop called me today said they figured it out and need another week and they would call me next week with a full detailed description of what they found and how they fixed it, once they make sure it starts up next week. Me having to wait for the description of what they did and how, makes me think I will be receiving a hefty bill >(

 

Thanks lockdown, I'll check out your threads.

 

no problem. keep us updated on the outcome. im wondering what it might me so i can check the same things.

 

Update. So Yamaha rep told the shop that they should recommend all R1's be sold with a battery tender. They also said you cannot just start the bike and let it idle to charge the battery. It has to run above idle for "some" time to charge, and by just starting it and letting it idle you are hurting the battery because "it takes so much ~12.2 volts to start it." Also, "letting it idle can put excess fuel and make it harder to start the next time."

The lo-jack rep said the battery on the lo-jack system was bad, and it had gone bad because the main battery went bad and so that was my problem to replace it. They said, "because the battery on the lo-jack was bad, it wouldn't charge itself so it constantly was draining the main battery (referring to the new battery that it killed)."

We also after standing around brainstorming for a while, decided to check out my battery tender, turns out I had a faulty battery tender. It would have a green light (saying it was charged and in storage mode even when we hooked it to a dead battery). When we hooked a new tender up to the same battery the light was red and it was charging.

So I've got a new tender and they are replacing the lo-jack battery, so we'll see. I am still skepticle, I have never let the bike sit more than 7 days without riding it, and every time I shut it down I always rev it to clean out the engine of excess fuel. Even with a bad tender, for the lo-jack to drain the bike in 7 days seems like a poor design. If I went somewhere for a week and forgot to bring the tender or forgot to plug it in before I left, after 7 days someone could steal the bike and the lo-jack would be useless...not a great advertisement.

On a side note, I have been dealing with PCP Motorsports in Sacramento, CA and they have been pretty understanding and easy to deal with. I am more disappointed in Lo-Jack and Yamaha. Neither one have made me a lifetime committed customer. The service department at PCP though, I would have to recommend, they recently promoted a guy named Dave to manager and so far I think they made the right decision.

 

I've got lojack on my 09 and typically if its too cold out i would start it every 3-4 days...just let it idle. and would never have a dead battery. I let it set for probably 8-9 days this time cause i didnt have time at all to start it up....dead battery. but it was also a REALLY hot summer...triple digits for 43 days straight...and the battery never failed me once. the temps have been 20-40's all last week...and I guess the cold put a bigger drain on the battery than the heat did. did lojack happen to say how long the battery last on the system and how to change it?

 

No they couldn't say how long lo-jack would last on the system. They said once your main battery dies, the back up battery goes for 24 hours and then it is supposed to go into sleep mode to reduce the amount of power it uses. They couldn't say how long in sleep mode it would last before the back up battery would die. They also said they can only recommend the battery be replaced by...Surprise! "An authorized lo-jack dealer." They did confirm and it is written in the lo-jack users manual that any bike with the lo-jack system should be kept on a trickle charger when bike is not in use.

 

It likely is a 9 volt and I'm sure you could replace it without a problem. The catch is, if there is a problem, lo-jack is a third-party so you will likely void any warranty and no dealer or shop would be able to help you with that. From talking with the guys at PCP sounds like lo-jack is pretty difficult even for them to deal with. It is kind of typical, when you know your product is a joke, and it screws up a bike, and it's really expensive, and you feed off of motorcyclist's fears because you know this is really their only option for theft insurance, you tend to be, as a company, very defensive about it.

I stand by my thumbs up for PCP motorsports in Sacramento though, they made me pay for the new lo-jack battery and install, because lo-jack said so basically, but to my surprise when I arrived PCP had made some pretty sweet mods to the bike as a thank you for me dealing with lo-jacks bull.

That said, if you live in Sac, don't go running there asking for free sh*t and get the manager fired. But be understanding and give them a chance and I can guarantee they will make the bike right, and do right by you as a customer.

 

Update: Bike sat on the tender two weeks in the non-insulated garage, and it started up, but I had to hit the button twice. First time, it cranked, then I let off, then second time it cranked and fired. The bike starts like this now every time so I can't complain, but I think Yamaha has some work to do, I feel I just push the button ONCE and the bike should start. Again, when I get into my car I only have to turn the key once to start it, and this has been the case with every car I've owned, some of which were far cheaper than my R1.

 

Mine won't! Hasn't since day one

 

Mine did tha same shit...lights good fuel pump hummed blinkers worked starter click...factory starter was gone took it to he stealership he tried 3diff batteries,chargers,jump boxes..nothing worked..changed the starter no more probs