5 Of The Best Motorcycle Trickle Chargers On Amazon

Riding a motorcycle is a lot of fun when the weather is nice, but it isn't exactly an all-season vehicle in most climates. Fog and rain make for unpleasant riding companions, while sleet, ice, and snow are downright dangerous for two-wheeled vehicles\, not to mention the havoc that the constant exposure to all that extra moisture can wreak on the bike itself. This is why many riders choose to store their bikes somewhere dry in the winter months and use other modes of transportation until the weather is more forgiving.

There are problems associated with leaving your bike idle for months on end, though. For one thing, the motorcycle's battery will slowly drain over time, and you might find it dead when you finally remove the cover the next time you want to take it for a ride. A simple recharge might fix the problem the first couple of times this happens, but repeatedly leaving the battery unattended can damage the cells and may ultimately lead to a battery that is unable to hold a charge.

I've been riding motorcycles for over a decade, and it's well known that one of the best ways to avoid this is to hook your battery up to a smart trickle charger any time you plan on going more than a couple of weeks without riding it. These come in all shapes and sizes, and you can get most of them for less money than replacing your battery would cost. In fact, there are plenty of great options available on Amazon. Here are five of the best.

Noco is one of the first brands that you're going to see whenever you search for motorcycle trickle chargers on Amazon. That's because Noco makes safe, intuitive, smart chargers that are easy to use and work on a variety of different battery types. These chargers actively measure the current of the battery that they're charging with smart diagnostics and slow the current when the battery is close to full in order to prevent overcharging and damaging the battery.

Noco makes several different models of smart chargers, and while just about all of them would probably work, many of them are made for cars and other larger vehicles that require a much higher capacity current than your motorcycle. That's great if you need something to charge your car as well, but something just for your bike can be a bit smaller.  The Genius 1 is the simplest, most basic charger that the company sells, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have all the features you need for your motorcycle. It's a 1A, 6V and 12V charger that works with both AGM deep cycle and lithium batteries. That said, the Genius 2 has a few extra features, like status indicators for those willing to pay a bit extra.

I've been using Noco chargers for years now. I live in Oregon, where the rainy season lasts about half the year, so unfortunately, my bike spends a lot of time in the garage. I hook my motorcycle's battery up to a Genius 1 every fall when the cold weather starts, and it's never failed to start up like a brand-new battery when spring rolls around.

One of the oldest and most trusted brands that sells trickle chargers is called Battery Tender. The company has been around since 1965, and the very name has grown synonymous with automatic slow chargers. The company has since expanded into EV chargers and solar panels, but it still makes some of the best battery chargers on the market.

Motorcycle owners will specifically want to check out the Battery Tender Junior 800mA. The smaller 750mA model would probably be fine for most motorcycles, but the 800mA model is currently only $5 more on Amazon, and it allows operators to switch between currents designed for lead acid batteries, AGM batteries, and lithium batteries. It's also spark-proof and has a built-in ISM microcontroller that consistently monitors your battery and updates the charge being sent to it to make sure it doesn't get overcharged.

The charger has a staggering 4.8 out of 5 stars on Amazon with over 4,000 ratings. The few complaints that consumers have had seem to be from users who either received a defective unit or those who attempted to charge a car battery that was too large for the charger. RevZilla made a video on Battery Tender's products, including the 800mA model, and they pointed out that the extra features in Battery Tender products make them simpler, safer, and easier to use than most other brands.

Another brand that you might want to consider is Tecmate's OptiMate chargers. This company isn't quite as old as Battery Tender, but it has been around since 1994. OptiMate also manufactures a pretty big selection of trickle chargers.

The OptiMate 1 Duo has everything that you might need for a majority of motorcycles. It's a fully automatic 0.6A, 6V and 12V smart charger that works with AGM, GEL, STD, starter, deep cycle, and lithium batteries. It has an adaptive charge program that is designed to match whatever battery it's attached to. It has an IP50 dustproof rating and promises to function at low temperatures. The device itself also has a tri-color progress bar to make it easy for you to check the status of your battery and monitor its charging.

This is another charger that has a 4.8 out of five stars on Amazon. There were a few complaints that you might need an extension cord, but most reviews had nothing but praise for the device's operation, ease of use, and durability. Binil Varghese of Leave the Road reviewed this charger. "The OptiMate 1 Duo comes with everything needed to get connected. It has built-in safety features so you can leave it plugged in over long durations and save yourself the trouble of replacing your battery," he said. "Instead, buy one of these!"

CTEK is another highly recommended brand in the space. It's a Swedish company that was founded in 1997. It specializes in making advanced battery technology, though it's worth noting that its products tend to be a fair bit more expensive than most of its peers. As a European entity, many of its newest products aren't available in the U.S. That said, you can still get some really great chargers on Amazon.

The XS 0.8 is one of the better options for trickle-charging a motorcycle. It's a 0.8A, 12V charger that is exclusively for lead-acid batteries, so you don't want to pair it with lithium. That said, it's compact and has a more sensitive charging system than most other low-amperage chargers. The XS performs fully automatic charging and maintenance in 6 steps. This means that it progressively slows down in stages as the battery becomes full in order to ensure that no damage comes to the cells. It's also spark-proof, short-circuit-proof, and reverse-polarity-protected.

The charger has a 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon, with most reviews being positive and a few complaining about the clip connectors being sub-par or that the charger was slow when fully recharging a battery. "This battery charger does the job nicely," says YouTuber Roads of Oz. "This may not be the biggest, but for home use, it's ideal. You can leave it for a few hours and you'll generally have a battery from empty pretty much to fully charged."

Those who prefer a digital interface that gives a bit more information than most chargers might like something like the Oxford Oximiser 900. As you might have guessed from the name, Oxford is primarily based in the U.K. Many of the manufacturers on this list produce a range of battery hardware for vehicles of all sizes, but Oxford is a company that specializes in making products for bicycles and motorcycles. It manufactures everything from clothing and helmets to luggage to trickle chargers.

Oxford only makes a handful of chargers, but all of the ones that it makes come with a digital LED screen that provides detailed information about the charging process as it is occurring. The 900 is a 0.9A, 12V charger. It's the cheapest product in the company's line, but it's one of the few that is available on Amazon in the U.S., and it's got just about everything that most motorcyclists with an AGM, MF, or lead acid battery will need, (though this is another charger that doesn't work with lithium batteries.) The built-in diagnostics determines the best charging method and checks for correct polarity before charging. The unit then uses a quick charge mode to get the battery up to 85% before switching to a trickle charge mode. It then checks the status of the battery hourly in order to keep it topped at 100%. The screen monitors amperage, voltage, and charge status all the while.

Rider UK reviewed the charger and loved the display, easy connectivity, and 6-stage management system, though they were less fond of the short power cable and the fact that it doesn't have a built-in battery like some other models.

I've been riding motorcycles for over a decade, and I've been using trickle chargers for even longer. In creating this list, I used my personal experience to search out the chargers that had the most appealing features at the lowest prices. There are several options available that offer more power and features than those on this list, but many of them are overkill when it comes to motorcycles. Motorcycle batteries are typically much smaller than those used in cars and trucks, so the lower amperage chargers are more than adequate for keeping your batteries healthy whenever your bike is off the road.

I started by looking at the most popular brands that were available on Amazon. I chose the models that were best suited to trickle-charging a motorcycle battery and then shared their specifications. I relayed my personal experience with the Noco Genius chargers and relied on the testimonies of both customer and professional reviews for the products that I didn't have personal experience with.