FOAK: Solar motorcycle trickle chargers

http://www.britisheco.com/?productID=95&op=catalogue-product_info-null&prodCategoryID=8

Has anyone used either this product or similar? I'm quite tempted to
get one.

 

Guig wrote

The idea is sound but a much better one would simply be to install 15V
worth of noonday solar capacity on the bikes upper surfaces and connect
it through a diode and forget it.

Why? Your alternator charges the battery in seconds. All you need to
do is ride your bike regularly. Where regularly is not measured in
annual increments.

The only other reason I could see for having one would be in a garage
with no mains supply. Under these circumstances you should be looking
to generate 30V at noon and trickle charge a couple of large capacity
batteries. Which you then tap power from as and when.

 

Guig emerged from their own little world to say

I've never come across one specifically targeted at the motorcycle market
but similar items work well in cars.

It costs the same as an Optimate which would be much better. Don't you have
a mains outlet within range of your bike?

 

Maplin
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=47902&criteria=solar charger&doy=16m1

Does what it says on the tin at £19.99

 

I didn't until a bit over a month ago. Now I have a heated and lit
garage with power sockets ))))

Despite that, I just bought one of those solar panels a couple of days
ago - for the car.

 

Why? Do you have a "solar motorcycle"?

 

Fraid not, the bike is living in the shed which is a distance from the
house and currently the battery is out and being trickle-charged in
the house. We do plan to do some work soon and get water and
electricity down to the shed as soon as we clear the backlog of other
work which needs done in house and garden.

 

Splendid, quite a bit cheaper than the other one.

 

I haven't been able to ride the bike much over the winter for numerous
reasons.

*ding*

 

Guig wrote

Provided you keep the door open you can do more than just sit on it in
the shed going, "Vroom, vroom." You do know this don't you?

Then go the whole hog and fit it out with a substantial 24V store.

 

You need this
<http://www.survivalunlimited.com/solar_misc/cyclesaver.htm#q1>
Oh, you've already seen it. Doh.

 

It's a Merkin site FFS.

 

I know, but was looking for something a little more elegant until I
can lay in the electricity properly.

 

Get a 90ft extension lead and arrange it in flower shaped blossoms and
don't forget to paint them. That'd be elegant.

 

Can be had for free at a London Bus bus-stop near you...

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Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
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WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Not a bad idea but the local neds would just nick it I plan to dig
a channel down to the shed lay on some plastic piping and stuff it
underground, and get a proper spark to do the necessary to wire it
into the house main.

 

I have one (about 18" long, same make) which I use on the 520i which
I've driven twice in the past two months. I keeps the battery charged
against the security system, it seems to work

you might want to compare the price on the CPC website, it might be
cheaper

 

Antipodean thug ...

 

CPC?

 

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