Batteries going bad?

[JTrider]

I have gone through 3 batteries in the last 2 months and I'm not sure what is going on. Everything was working perfect and one day it wouldn't start so I took the battery to a battery store and they told me it was bad so I bought a new one. Within a couple rides the battery all of sudden went dead too so I took it in and they said it couldn't be recharged. I exchanged that one for a new one and in the middle of the first ride it too went dead. What could be going on here. If something was draining it I would assume that a recharge would fix it but all these batteries are beyond recharge. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jason

[timmy400exfast]

maybe your stator is bad

[bigbad400]

how would you test that?

[bergoff]

start it and put a volt meter on the battery. i had a motorcycle that was eating batteries alot and it said 18 volts when i tested it. my stator was bad. i think that it should be somewhere around 14 volts. you could also check for amp draw and look for a short in your wiring. short are a pain to find.

[Snipe]

Either that or the magneto could be bad preventing the charge of the battery. Meaning when riding your drawing off just battery power until there is no more power left.

[JTrider]

I will have to test the stator. The main thing that baffles me is that I put a new battery in it the night before a ride and when I was riding I was only riding for a couple hours(maybe 3 starts) before it stopped starting again due to the battery. I was able to push start it but that was it. Could a bad stator cause the battery to be unchargable?