When I buy a new battery (NAPA part # 740-1851 is my fave) I try to resist the temptation to plug it in and go riding. I put it on charge overnight, tilted at a slight angle to allow the bubbles to recirculate the electrolyte. If you filled a new battery, and rode to the tip of South America and back without turning the engine off, the new battery would only come up to about 75%. Charging before use gives you the top 25%, which is the part you use when you thumb the start button! Last 12 month Napa I used went 26 months; was still starting the engine at 50%, but I changed it out before the Moab Thing.
Holes in my shirt come from innocent little splashes of acid when I'm checking the charge level. At the auto parts store, look for the mini-tester, about the size of a 5cc syringe, with the little colored balls. Not much fluid on top of the plates in a bike battery; that kind of tester doesn't require much. When I lived on The Carrier, the guys in the battery locker used to wear what we called undress blues to work. Wool, right? Not affected by battery acid! Wear that brand new Pendelton your wife gave you for Christmas, and save all those $4.95 pocket T's! HAHAHAHAhahaha....
Whenever I install, I use a flat file or a piece of sandpaper to shine the top of the terminals where the cable lugs live, and polish the underneath of those lugs with fine steel wool. I smear a bit of vaseline (!) where they meet, and dog everything down. But Uncle Jake: isn't vaseline an insulator? I thought so too, until I worked for Zinsco. One of my duties was to set up new breaker designs for UL listing. They went into a breaker box all wired up with thermocouples, to measure the heat rise under load. To eliminate heat corrosion from the mix, we coated all the contact surfaces with a thin film of vaseline. Ann Marie LaPointe, from Canada came up to my shop a few years ago; tear in her eye, dead battery on her Low Rider. Installed it new in CA at the start of the ride. Huuboy, I thought, New Alternator Time. Checked the charge system, working fine. Battery was indeed dead. She hoped that she could press on, parking on hills or Run & Bump, but I told her if she loved me, she'd let me charge her battery overnight <leer> She agreed, pitched her tent on the back lawn, and we shared a sip of wine with dinner. Next morning the battery was doing Jumping Jacks on the bench; She loaded up and rode out of my life. The battery wasn't getting anything from the charging circuit! Vaseline!
Out here in the arid west, I check my fluid level about every month during summer. Maintenance free types still have access for this. Gino recommends a gel battery, for no maintenance, but I can't afford his taste in boots, neither. As with a lot of other bike systems, a few minutes here and there will pay great dividends on a 35 degree morning up at Blue Spruce Campground! Cold brings out all the bad habits in a battery! Battery tenders are good for the off season, try to get a regular motorcycle charger that runs at about 1.5 amps maximum; an automotive type at 3 or 4 amps will damage the little critter. I hook a small VOM into the circiut, to tell when the battery is starting to resist the charge. It usually drops off to 0.4 amps or so, then it's time to test. If you have to jump-start from a car or charger, only hold the clamp on the hot terminal for as long as you thumb the button! Pull off quickly, lest heat smoke thy circuits! When you get home from a trip which included some fallover time, check the fluid level, just to be safe. Now go forth and sin no more.
