For all my motorcycle travellers friends from India and Abroad, see this blog first ???

With the buffering of YouTube now NIL, the favorite past time for most of us is to couch surfing the Internet from the comfort of our laptops and mobiles. I think we all can comfortably raise our hands when I say most of us do watch YouTube videos to past our time. May the the content of the videos might be different but in general, what we do to past our time is the usage of either the social media or the YouTube.

I would like to call myself an avid motorcycle enthusiast and try to keep up the current trend in the two-wheeler market. I have been the Webmaster of the two-wheeler website for past 10 years and in-fact I have an obligation to keep track of the motorcycle world. Had to mention - Big fan of Vale 46. So obviously my YouTube video playlist has lots and lots of motorcycle video contents. From like when my Indian friends used to post vlogs on Nepal way past the YouTube was bandwidth friendly to now each week us getting new vlogs from our Indian friends on motorcycles, I love watching them and keeping track on how they relate motorcycles in Nepal. Common theme is "We love motorcycles and We love to Travel".

contd...

Will a USB power cable constantly attached to my motorcycle battery draw power enough to kill my battery?

This article first appeared on Trade Nepal

Now-a-days I see a lot of accessories, especially for Royal Enfield riders which let them charge their mobile cell while they are riding. Seems fun and practical, virtually never letting your cell battery run out of juice. But does adding those extra load kill of the precious motorcycle battery instead ?

Power cables by themselves don’t draw any power, however, a small 12V to USB converter will draw power and eventually discharge your battery. That is drain it, maybe not kill it. Kill is such a fickle word. I take “killing” a rechargeable battery to mean effectively ruining it so it won’t take or hold a charge anymore.

The USB socket is 5V. Your cable converts the 12V battery voltage to 5V and will consume power while it is connected. However, the amount of power is very small. You can measure it by testing the current drawn with an ordinary multi-meter connected in series on a 12V wire. When there are no USB devices plugged in the power drawn will probably be so small that it will not be a problem if the motorcycle is in daily use.

However, when a device (especially a GPS) is plugged in, the power consumption will increase. A cell phone probably will not run the motorcycle battery down too badly, but a GPS will. It is easy to forget to unplug a GPS and then the next morning the battery is so dead that it needs to be replaced.

If you discover that your lead-acid battery has run flat overnight, it is very important to get some charge into it IMMEDIATELY. Sulphating begins as soon as the battery is flat and in a matter of hours there is measurable damage. A lead-acid battery shouldn't be allowed to discharge below about 30% if you want it to last.

At least install an inline fuse in the 12V cable. When you store the motorcycle then remove the fuse or disconnect the battery.

It is probably worthwhile installing a 4-port USB charger. You are likely to need power for more than one USB device.

The anxiety of working

Regardless of what we want to do, we are always stuck with things we don't want to do or want to be doing. The monotonous lifestyle is bit boring when you can think of number of things you should be doing for yourself. I would rather eat my heart out in all these beautiful and delicious eateries rather than work in my table. I would also go on riding to the unknown places and live the adventure. But unfortunately it is not so.

When I hear "Refreshed and Raring to go after my vacation", basically I just hear "Oh no!!! I have to go back to that hellhole to work again". Do I want to be working like that ? Hell No! I want to enjoy what I am doing. But to enjoy I need to do what I feel like doing.

Basically, if try to milk an Ox, you know what you will get.