Semi new to Bikes, Very new to the "V"

[Ken Williams]

In the close to 5x,xxx miles I rode my Vision I did not experience a regulator failure.  My bike always needed a good, well charged battery in order to start.  If the battery was not strong it appeared that the plugs did not fire, even though the engine would spin.  Unless I had a fresh battery the bike would sometimes not start if it sat for too long.  Usually, the jump from a non-running car was not sufficient to start my bike after running the battery partially down.  However, a jump from my running car always would.  I generally waited until I really needed a battery before I purchased one.  I must have successfully jump started my Vision from a running car 100-200 times during the time I owned it without incident.  After starting the Vision I always immediately disconnected the jump connection.  With sufficiently high battery voltage, the entire stator output will be shunted through the regulator.  If you ran the bike at a rpm high enough to generate significant charging current for long enough this might overheat and damage the regulator since it is probably not sized for this condition. 

Running the Vision with no battery is not a good idea.  The battery helps to regulate voltage, especially spikes.  Old British bikes that could run without a battery used a capacitor for this purpose.  coilXZcoyle, you mentioned you fried a regulator with plugs pulled.  Does this mean you did not have the sparkplug cables grounded or connected to grounded sparkplugs so that sparks were being generated in the gaps?  If so, then the voltage reflected back to the regulator output from the really high voltage generated by the open circuited coils is likely why you experienced the failure. 

I have read there can be 3 digit voltage levels generated in an unplugged stator.  I don't know if this will damage stator insulation.  Has anyone experienced a stator failure after running it open?  My guess is that the heat generated in normal operation is worse for the stator than the high voltage generated while disconnected.