What does your voltage read when you turn on bike, key only, prior to starting? I’m attempting to diagnose a weak starting issue that reared its head right after discovering a shorted wire that was blowing fuses. I’ve fixed the shorted wire and wanted to know if I caused irreversible damage to my battery, and if this is the reason my bike now struggles to start sometimes.

It seems that when the on dash voltage reads close to 13.5V, it cranks up instantly. If and when the battery voltage reads low 13’s - high 12’s, it struggles to start and only starts if I hold down the starter button longer than usual.

Thanks

sorry, no Shorai... but perhaps this helps a bit?

this morning's turn key voltage display = 12.2 V
while being on the move, display says 14.4 V
am having a 2½-year old YUASA YTX14L-BS battery
... ambient temperature here currently @ 30 degC

At least 12.5v, less than that, it's going to have to crank over a couple more times. 11v, it probably won't start and if it does, you'll get an explosion out of your muffler. If your battery dropped to 11v or less, there's a good chance your Shorai battery won't hold a charge as well as it did before that. It will still last years but you will have to keep it on the charger between rides. It gets worse as it gets older. Mine lasted 11 years but it had to be kept on a charger. It held a charge sufficient to start the bike for two or three days towards the end.

Thanks guys! Been chasing down this sporadic cranking issue for over 2 weeks. I changed out the stator and rectifier, purchased a AGM battery and returned it after I discovered that the issue still existed. Now that I eliminated one area, electrical, and the issue still existed… that left only 2 areas I needed to explore…fuel and spark. So I decided since I have 25K miles on the clock and my spark plugs are the original plugs, that I would change them out to see if this would fix the issue and if not I would move on to the fuel pump/fuel filter. Lo and behold, changing out the spark plugs fixed the issue and my bike fires right up, no hesitation/dragging cranks or backfires from the exhaust. Runs like new now.

I tell ya, I dreaded and didn’t look forward to changing out the spark plugs because of the area where they’re located, and my big hands don’t maneuver well in that tight space. Anyways, with some patience and trial and error it was well worth it and the next time I won’t panic when approaching this task. BTW the spark plugs ran me over $80($20 each)which I wasn’t expecting, but hey I had no choice but to pony up.

Glad you solved it. My plugs had something like 48,000 miles on them before I changed them and the bike was running fine. I'm sure the plugs come due before the valve lash check but an easy time to change plugs (if you haven't already) is when you check the valve clearances.