What happens to your bike after it’s been sitting in the garage all winter, or for any extended period of time, for that matter? The gas gets old, and the battery can lose its charge. It’s a good idea to keep your bike’s battery on a tender when it sits for long periods of time without running.

An easy solution to this problem is the CTEK charger. These fully automatic battery chargers operate in a three-step fully automatic cycle. One of these chargers will start charging with a constant charge until it hits maximum voltage (14.7 volts). At that point, the charger switches to constant-voltage mode, and the current supply to the battery is gradually reduced. If the current drops just 0.4 amps, the charger then switches to pulse maintenance to continue charging. If the battery is fully charged and the terminal voltage of the battery falls to 12.9 volts, the charger automatically starts again at the first step of the charge characteristic. This is a good way to keep a battery from dying, but it will not bring a dead battery back to life.

This is the CTEK 3300 12v charger (MSRP: $69.99); there are six different sizes of chargers to choose from, depending on the size of the battery you are trying to maintain. If you go to the company’s website, you can choose from a 6-volt charger that works with small batteries all the way up to the maximum power of the UT-14000. This charger is ideal for vehicles such as buses, semi-trucks, and large boats that run with a 24-volt battery.