How to access the M696's battery?

[09-M696]

Anybody with a M696 know how to access the battery yet?

My bike seems to have a battery issue. It won't start. Yes I am taking it to the dealer, but it would have been nice to troubleshoot the easy stuff first to attempt to save myself the time & money and/or just bring the suspect battery only, esp. when you have nobody around to help assist you with a push start.

I wanted to look around for any loose connections or ground shorting. The battery seemed to die just after sitting around for 1 day. Yeah somethings not right. I did notice that after attempting to trickle charge the cell the voltage read 12.8, 12.7, 12.7, 12.6... etc. in a matter of seconds. Hitting the start only sagged it down to the 9 volts. Bad cell? I tried to jump start it with another 12v cell I had on hand thru the tender harness (bad idea) and now I think I blew the fuse there (no multimeter reading there anymore) but the bike is still showing the same no start symptoms and battery error on display.

Anyway with this new design I got stuck after taking off the plastic fairings with nothing to else to look at but a grey composite gas tank with no clear visible sign of fastening points. They all looked to be done on the underside (special tools?). I gave up there and put the fairings back on. It makes me worried what if later after the warranty period how am I supposed to do what was once an easy DIY maintenance issue?

[UP N MTNS]

Originally Posted by 09-M696

Anybody with a M696 know how to access the battery yet?
Anyway with this new design I got stuck after taking off the plastic fairings with nothing to else to look at but a grey composite gas tank with no clear visible sign of fastening points. They all looked to be done on the underside (special tools?). I gave up there and put the fairings back on. It makes me worried what if later after the warranty period how am I supposed to do what was once an easy DIY maintenance issue?

I took mine apart to put on the new ECU and air filter that came with the Termi's... You where very close to getting it apart!!

About where your knees rest (where tho only lower allen bolt is on each side of the tank panels) there is a 8mm bolt that goes through a rubber groumet one on each side of the bike, you can only see them once the tank panels are off the bike.
Remove those bolts and then from under the rear seat area, right where the exhaust Y is theres a black allen bolt that comes out, once out the tank will slide backwards and come out of the grommets and be free.... Thats all there is to removing the tank (3 bolts). On the rear right side of the tank is the fuel line and fuel pump connecter you'll need to unplug those if your taking the tank all the way off. I just used a strap and raised the tank up on it's rear most point and had plenty of access to the airbox and battery area..

I also ran some jump leeds I made off the battery down the frame as it would be a total PIA to remove all that just for a battery jump if every needed.

If you still are having trouble I can post some pics for you.

UP N MTNS