[tullysr]

Just in case anyone else runs into this problem, I wanted to share my experience to help solve some frustrations.

Yesterday, I bought a (new to me) 2004 CB900F and when we went to start it, the lights turned on but there was not enough juice to start the bike. I bump started it and rode it about 90 miles and had to fill up with gas. Again, it wouldn't start, but the lights worked. I rode another 80 miles towards home and the bike started running really badly. As long as I was accelerating, it ran smoothly, but if I decelerated or held a constant speed, the bike would sputter and want to stall. The battery was completely toast when I got home. I put a meter on it and it read 10.2 volts with the bike off and then when I turned the key it dropped to 8.7 volts. I bought a new battery at lunch today and put it in and the bike started and ran perfectly! I didn't see any other posts with similar information, so hopefully this will help someone!

[ratdog]

Bad or undercharged battery, typical behavior you describe.

When you turn the key, the fuel pump kicks on which is what caused the drop in voltage.

Old battery might have been usable if it had been put on a tender.

Do yourself a favor and spend $30 on a battery tender and another $5 to hang the pigtail off your battery and make it easy to get to.