Push and pull: The onboard ammeter
Your bike's battery is an electricity storage device as much as it is an electricity-producing device. Consequently, two things are happening to it all the time: it is giving out electricity and it is taking in electricity. And like your bank balance, the design concept of the motorcycle's battery and charging system is that the battery will, though both output and input happen simultaneously, receive more than it puts out. Right? How else could it survive? For this to happen the battery must receive compensation for each bit of energy it serves up, which of course is what the charging system is for. The ammeter is literally a monitor of this compensation. It is therefore far better suited to informing in real time everything that happens with the charging system than is a voltmeter. The pictures immediately above show how the ammeter is wired into the system on a vintage Honda. The red/white and red wires must be separated from the red going to the batter...