Filling new Lead-Acid Battery

It's been a while since I've updated, mainly because it's been a while since I have completed any actual work on the motorcycle. Although I got the bike for a winter project I have found that I have been way busier in the winter and also not very willing to work in a cold garage.

After returning home from a weekend ski hiatus, I decided its time to pick this thing back up and get it started. I should only have to solder the famous "3 yellow wires," trailing from the stator to the R/R and then install the battery. Since I recently conditioned/coated the tank with POR-15 and still have the petcock in pieces I don't really want to fill the tank (since I will not be riding the bike...any time soon). So when I eventually get to starting it, I picked up a test stand gasoline "IV." This would definitely be a very helpful tool for motorcycles that need their tanks removed for carb adjustments. It incorporates a small fuel bottle with fuel line and an ON/OFF petcock. I will be able to hang it off the handlebars and bypass the petcock, thus avoiding vacuum issues/priming the bowls for the first start up.

Fuel "IV" test bottle, ebay pic

I took a few minutes researching on how to fill the battery, checking the WWW for tips and tricks. Youtube, surprisingly, didn't have great information. I found a few helpful and informative websites, listed below, that I pulled information from:

http://www.ibmwr.org/otech/newbattery.html

http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/newbattery.htm

I basically followed some of the steps that are listed on those websites, so I am not going to go into detail on how to fill a motorcycle battery. In the process, one of the things that surprised me was that the battery cells used a significant amount of acid before the liquid shadow was visible on the side of the battery. Finally, when filling/maintaining motorcycle batteries and working with highly corrosive acids, always remember your PPE! (gloves, eye protection at minimum in a well vented area)

Everything that I have used or will use for the battery

Doing some of the charging tonight, then will finish it off tomorrow at some point.

Battery all filled up with vent tube