What happens if you jumpstart a motorcycle with a car

I have only done it once, thankfully, back when I was a new rider. That single time was more than enough, because I had to have someone come rescue me from far away, which meant that they had to effectively swim upstream in Chicago rush hour traffic. While both a car and your bike have batteries and electrical systems, the two are NOT equal.

Instead of needing a simple jump, you could end up with much deeper, more serious headaches to worry about. You can avoid all this by simply keeping the car in this equation turned off for the duration of the jump start procedure. Double-check that everything is clamped correctly to avoid any issues. You may need to fiddle around a little to make everything connect the way it needs to do in order to successfully jump your bike. Do NOT turn on the car. Check your manual to see the specs for your model specifically.

Hopefully now you feel a little more prepared for the next time you hit that starter button and hear that dreaded click. As always, feel free to share your "dead bike" stories below and if you need help finding a new battery for your bike or a personal power supply to add to your tool kit, reach out to one of our gear geeks at or shoot an email to cs revzilla.

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Image Gallery. Subscribe to. Related Stories. If everything seems okay, start the bike again after the starter cools. When the motorcycle starts, disconnect the black clamp on the motorcycle and car. Next, disconnect the red clamps on the motorcycle and car. After disconnection, the cable is not energized anymore. Typically, when you start a motorcycle with a good motorcycle battery, the voltage drops the battery voltage to 12V or less due to the load.

So, you are not supposed to crank the motorcycle longer than 15 seconds, or it burns the starter. However, when you start a motorcycle with a good car battery, the car battery does not drop below 13V or thereabout on a small load of a motorcycle you crank. If you crank for a longer period, it damages the motorcycle. If you power the car, the alternator sources more current needed by the motorcycle, such that the motorcycle does not pull the 14 or thereabout volt.

Meanwhile, at 14 volts, your starter coils heat up and may fail. In this case, put off the car and use the car battery to jumpstart the motorcycle. Cranks are one-second bursts with a few seconds of calm in between. Typically, cars have bigger batteries and more room to avoid shorting things. Make sure to look for smoke on any part and try. It is not advisable to start or leave the car running when jumpstarting a motorcycle. It can ruin or degrade the motorcycle voltage regulator or battery.

A decently charged car battery can jumpstart a motorcycle easily. Most motorcycles and cars feature a 12V charging system. So, just hook up the jumper cables after turning off the car and start the motorbike.

If the car is running, the alternator puts out After jumpstarting a motorcycle with a car, allow it to run up to 30 minutes at highway speeds before it can start with its battery. Nevertheless, it will not charge fully; you can charge it after the ride. Lastly, if the motorcycle has a 6V-charging system, do not jumpstart with a 12V car.

Instead, you can bump start it.