Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Can I run a VH500 without a battery or does the dynamo need one to work?

The battery stabilises the voltage to some degree and you will probably burn out the stop light without one. The regulator will still work. I've had Velo's (Miller electrics) that work perfectly without a battery. Installing a small battery will probably give it a reduced life as the charge rate will be too high. You could possible put a resistor in the charge circuit to assist that. The horn will not work satisfactorily on generator output alone usually. Nev

I ran my 500 single for years without a battery and without any problems.
I did have a bulb horn though rather than an electric one. Whether an
electric horn would work off the dynamo without a battery I don't know -
I never tried it.

hi i know its a different bike but i run my old G9 matchless for years without a battery and the lights work ok and horn did work not that great but it was good enough, but i don't think you can do that with the new type of regulators i know you can disconnect the battery on a old car with a dynamo with the engine running , and it will keep running and the lights and horn will all work

That's a good point Johnny. When I was doing my riding without a battery
it was with the original Lucas mechanical regulator.

When I used to run my NG without a battery the lights would get pretty dim at idle and lights are required even in daytime here in Canada. No other problems encountered due to no battery.

hi Chris have you tried LED lights i think they will be a lot brighter and they use a lot less amps to run, and i a lot brighter on tick over as well

So...what's the benefit of running without a battery these days? I would have thought that its not a cost issue as a 6 volt AGM can be picked up for about £20 these days.

Some of them don't like a high charge rate. If an AGM battery gets hot you chuck it. I personally don't run without a battery but they are a problem. Might be better to run without a generator if you aren't using the lights. Nev

In my case, some of the bikes don't get used that frequently and batteries
are just one more thing to need taking care of.