Battery Voltage Drops As Soon As You Turn Key On?

This is the first time I have had a battery fail this way. I got one of my bikes running from storage and after some trouble with the fuel valve leaking gas into #3 vacuum port I was out riding around and had to stop for gas. I shut the bike off and filled the tank. When I came out of the station, which was about five minutes after shutting the bike off. I hopped on and turned the key. I noticed the LCD display did not look quite right. Then I pushed the start button and the display went blank. No click no nothing? What the heck is going on here?... So I turned the key back off and waited for a minute or so , turned it back on and I could see the display was barely lit. Good thing the station was on a hill. I coasted down the hill and poped it in gear and turned the key on at the same time. She fired right up and I made it home.
So testing the battery with my meter it showed 12.65 volts and as soon as there is any kind of load it drops to like 3 volts.
I just wanted to share that you can't trust anything untill you put a meter on and verify its good or bad. It seems like a lot of starting/ running issues on this forum most of the time goes back to a bad battery or charging system problem.

Good Luck

 

Your battery is dieing, time for a new one. Did you check the water level in it before you started riding?

 

The battery was maintained all winter. It never got below the bottom line and I did top it off with fresh distiller water before I put it into the bike. That battery is only one season old. As you might know they only have a 90 day warranty.
It was a Batteries Plus Battery. I was thinking about a gel battery but I'm just not sure about those.
Anyway I just took another one off of the shelf and that one seems to be working good.
I just checked the alternator brushes and a few other things to be sure. The charging voltage will go up to over 13.6 at 3000 rpm.
I'm sure it was just a junk battery that was causing the problem.