Went to ride the WR250R today for the first time in close to two months, wheeled it out of the enclosed porch, turned key, lights came on, instrument cluster lit up. Turned kill switch to run. Finally, pushed the starter button and everything instantly went dead.
Oof.
Wheeled her back into the porch and pulled the battery out, took it to my workbench and tested. 13.1 volts, my DMM said. I even checked with a second DMM. Suspecting something was fishy, I scrounged around for some wire and cut some off a dead ATX power supply I had waiting for a scrap run. Found an old 250GB hard drive and hooked it up to the battery to provide a load. Bingo, instant voltage drop down to 3 volts, and after a few seconds it rose up to 6.8 volts. Still, battery is RIP.
Managed to find a Duralast replacement GSX5L battery at a nearby Autozone (at a massively inflated price compared to an X5L size battery on Amazon, but at least it has a 3 month warranty), hooked it to a charger for an hour to top it off, and all is well again. Just got back from doing a gingerly night ride on the WR and the KLR650, about 45 minutes on each. Did about 15 minutes of practice on each one doing low speed maneuvering, figure-8s and slaloms. Cycle skills are perishable, use em or lose em!