Keep your battery clean, filled and charged and it should last for several years.

I have grown lazy over the years since the smart charger became popular with motorcycle riders. The smart charger is a wonderful device, especially if you own more than one classic or vintage motorcycle like I do. You simply plug it in and forget about it.

The battery smartcharger is designed to check the charge state of the battery is it connected to. It can be 6 or 12 volt if you have the correct battery charger. If it senses the battery is less than fully charged it sends a charge to the battery until it is fully charged. This is wonderful most of the time.

It is not such a great deal when a) the electrolyte in the battery drops below the minimum level and the plates inside the battery go bad, and b) when corrosion grows on and around the battery terminals.

More often than not I have issues with the low levels in the cells – which is easily resolved with the addition of enough distilled water to raise the level to correct heights (be careful NOT to overfill). Occasionally I find a mound of dry white deposit on the terminal and possibly the battery box too. The solution to this is to clean it off with a mix of tap water and some baking soda. An old toothbrush works just fine.

Let the mixture of water and backing soda coat the entire area and let it sit there for a few minutes then wash everything off thoroughly with tap water. Easy as that.