my 2004 honda 250ex battery keeps going dead ive charged it like 3 times but after i ride it goes dead what could be causing this.
the battery went dead for the first time when i left the bike sitting or a month.

 

I would say you have a few possibilities:

1) Battery has internal short and is not holding a charge. It has enough juice to get it started but the trickle charge from the alternator is the only thing running the bike and the battery is already or partially dead.

2) Alternator is gone and the bike is sucking the battery dead.

3) You have a short somewhere in the wiring (on the bike) and it is draining the battery as it sits.


Given what you have said I would think it is the battery going bad. You might try a local auto shop (Autozone, checker, etc.) to see if they can test the battery under a load (most large chains do the test for free). Charge the battery up for a couple days and then take it in. They can tell you if one of the cells went dead. Hope that helps.


If the battery tests ok then I would start looking at the alternator. It is possible that the alternator has an internal short (bad diodes) and is draining the battery as it sits. I know for older cars (not sure about bikes) but a good way to check the alternator was to start the vehicle and then pull the battery (positive) cable off. If the vehicle continued to run then it was a battery problem (not holding charge), if the car died then it was an alternator problem (not producing power). I've heard you should not do this with newer FI vehicles, not sure about bikes, maybe someone can chime in. The other option would be to find out how many volts the alternator is supposed to put out and then use a volt meter at the alternator connection to check the voltage output to the battery.

 

I recommend the following:

charge the battery then disconnect it for a few days.
reconnect and try to start the quad.

If it starts, the problem is not your battery. If not, you have a bad battery. It isn't capabile of "holding" a charge.