Well after having the old Shorai abruptly die on me mid-corner in December I replaced it with a...generic lead-acid battery (whatever the local shop had in stock that day) and moved on with my life...I had not ridden since but the bike sat on a Battery Tender since and the other day I decided to start her up after adding some Techron while I washed my wife’s car...bike was idling fine, then died and would NOT restart. Ran the battery down so I gave up and left her to charge overnight...next morning, still no dice.
Uh oh.
Came home from work and tried again and realized that I was NOT hearing the fuel pump whine...but after checking the terminals and starter relay it turned on and fired up...but would die the moment I put hi-beams or grip heaters on.
Nuts.
Using the internetwebz and my marginal wrenching skills I checked the R/R - the harness was extremely difficult to separate - explained once I managed it and found it utterly scorched (no pic). That’s when I decided to wipe the slate and replace the R/R, stator and battery. Opted for Ricks and a Yuasa AGM which I installed over the weekend - bike seems happy and values all in spec...13.85V at 5k RPM (was hoping for 14+) but it’s still within limits.
Still irked by not knowing if the stator harness was the symptom or the cause, but nearly 20 years with the factory bits is fine. Gave up on LiPo batteries - I had tried a couple but when they die it’s far more abrupt than I’d like...not worth the weight savings (and I wonder if the voltage might have contributed to the electrical woes...dunno).