What is Motorcycle Grounding?

You may hear experts always recommending you ground your motorbike, but do you know what is motorcycle grounding? And how it matters to you?

Motorcycle grounding is the way to pass an excess electric current coming out from your motorbike that your motorbike can’t use. A mechanic facilitates motorbike battery negative terminals with enough voltage in this method. You can check if your motorbike is grounded by light or a multimeter method. 

Let’s look at what it means and what you can do about it. 

While writing this post, I leave no stone unturned so you can know everything about motorcycle grounding. 

What is Motorcycle Grounding? 

You may hear experts recommending grounding your motorbike to boost battery life, but have you wondered what motorcycle grounding is? 

Motorcycle grounding is how you save your motorbike electrical equipment to use excess high voltage electricity, which can damage them. 

You save your motorbike electrical equipment from malfunctions from high electricity through motorcycle grounding. 

How Can You Check if Your Motorbike is Grounded? 

Although there are tons of methods to check if your motorbike is grounded or not. But I’ll discuss only two highly reliable methods. 

Light Method: 

The light method is the easiest; all you should have is a light and some wires. 

Collect all required wires and lights to check if your motorbike battery has some power in it or not. 

You can check the motorbike battery by connecting both light terminals through the wire and then through the opposite battery terminal. 

If your motorbike battery is charged, the light will be ON; otherwise, you will have to charge the battery before performing this method. 

If your motorbike battery is fully charged, you need to connect one terminal of light to the battery, say negative to negative, and touch the second wire to the motorbike part. 

If the light remains ON after touching the random motorbike part, the motorbike area is ideally grounded. On the opposite side, if the light isn’t ON, the motorbike part isn’t grounded and needs to be grounded. 

But if your light is blinking, then it means that the motorbike part isn’t grounded correctly and should be appropriately grounded. 

Multimeter Method: 

Undoubtedly the light method is the easiest way to determine whether your motorbike is grounded or not. But with the multimeter method, you can determine what and where the main problem is. 

Before performing this method, all you need is wires and a multimeter. First, you must connect the multimeter’s positive terminal to the battery’s positive terminal through the wire. 

After connecting them together, your multimeter will start to show voltage reading. Ideally, motorbike battery voltage needs to be equal to and greater than 12. 

If your motorbike battery isn’t showing a voltage of 12 or more, then you may need to replace it. 

If your motorbike battery is OK, you need to touch the positive terminal of the multimeter to the different motorbike parts. 

Ideally, if your motorbike is well-grounded, the multimeter will show battery voltage. If your multimeter will show poor readings if the motorbike isn’t grounded. 

You can perform more grounded checks, and to do this, you need to set the meter to the ohm. Now disconnect the battery ground wires and connect one of them with the multimeter and touch the other terminal to the motorbike parts. 

If your motorbike is grounded correctly, the metro will show readings close to 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3. Still, if there’s no connectivity, your meter will show OL or overload. 

Through these two methods, you can determine whether your motorbike is grounded or not in just easy steps.

What Will Happen if a Motorbike isn’t Grounded Properly? 

So far, you understand some ways to know whether your motorbike is grounded or not. But have you wondered what will happen if your motorbike isn’t grounded? 

Motorbike Won’t Start: 

Although there are tons of reasons behind this problem and if your motorbike isn’t starting, lack of ground could be the main reason behind it. 

It starts when the battery’s negative terminal isn’t getting enough voltage. As a result, the battery can’t generate enough charge to start the motorbike. 

Battery Charging:

Just like a motorbike isn’t starting, the battery not charging could be because of various reasons. 

It could be because of an alternator problem or if your battery malfunctions. But suppose all reasons seem to be OK. In that case, you need to check whether your battery is grounded or not because lack of ground could be the main reason behind your battery not charging. 

Battery Voltage: 

Your motorbike often doesn’t start when there’s not enough voltage. If you suspect that your motorbike battery isn’t getting voltage, then you need to check if the motorbike is grounded. 

You can check the battery voltage with the help of a multimeter; as mentioned above, ideally, the meter should show reading from 12-to 12.9. And if the meter is showing a reading below 11.5, your motorbike isn’t grounded well. 

Do Motorcycle Ignition Coils Need to Be Grounded? 

Motorcycle ignition coils should be grounded, probably the most significant controversy among motorbike riders. 

And that’s why it’s my duty to give you some solid scientific knowledge about motorcycle ignition coils.

The motorcycle ignition coil is basically the device for increasing or decreasing the electrical current voltage to your motorbike battery.

And this is probably the main reason why many riders still think that motorcycle ignition should be grounded. 

Look, motorbikes are nowadays getting smart, and they don’t need an ignition coil that should be grounded. 

However, the coil should be grounded to transfer and make motorbike ignition within the temperature limit. The ignition coil can be grounded on any surface to transfer and manage the temperature. 

Even some motorbike manufacturers use paint surfaces to transfer and manage the temperature.  

Why Should Ignition Coils Be Grounded? 

So far, you understand that the ignition coil shouldn’t be grounded for electrical reasons. Now the question arises, why should ignition coils be grounded. 

The ignition coil manages the electricity voltage going to your motorbike battery. And this function heated the ignition coil, which needed to be cooled down for maintaining battery health. Thus to cool the ignition coil, it should be grounded irrespective of any surface.  

And to extend the battery health, the ignition should not cross the threshold temperature while riding. 

What Happens if Ignition Coils Aren’t Grounded? 

As mentioned above, your motorbike ignition coil should be grounded to dissipate heat while boosting the voltage. Now the question arises, what happens if ignition coils aren’t grounded? 

If your motorbike ignition coils aren’t grounded, then ignition coils won’t dedicate heat generated by boosting the voltage. As a result, your motorbike ignition coils would malfunction, and your motorbike won’t start again. Even your motorbike self-start will malfunction, and you will struggle to start your motorbike.

Thus to avoid this situation, the manufacturer made ignition coils grounded. 

Also, read my previous post where I discussed whether you can add water to your motorbike battery or not, CLICK HERE to read.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Final Verdict: 

What is Motorcycle Grounding? Motorcycle grounding is the way to pass an excess electric current coming out from your motorbike battery that your motorbike can’t use. A mechanic facilitates motorbike battery negative terminals with enough voltage in this method. 

You can check if your motorbike is grounded by light or a multimeter.