Depends upon the bike and any bike with a real magneto will start and run but it will not have a means to power lighting if there is no alternator. I’ve owned several bikes with magnetos; a 50 Triumph and a 1960 Harley XLCH Sportster with a stroker motor. The HD had a 2 brush generator and the Triumph had a permanent magnet alternator.
With permanent magnet alternators and no magneto the engine will start and run fine sans a battery. The only issue is that lighting dims at an idle.
When a couple of friends and myself built a bike out of scrap parts that bike also did not have a battery. It was a permanent magnet alternator only; no magneto. Kick start of course.
I pulled apart a scrap Delco alternator, removed 4 diodes, and soldered them in a daisy chain; making it a full wave rectifier. One point to ground, one hot, and remaining 2 going to the alternator leads. A capacitor was added along with a Zener diode to control voltage; and off the bike went.
Harley has been using permanent magnet alternators since 1970 with the big drawback being lack of the electric foot (a.k.a. kicker).
Sorry for the confusion. it is a 12v generator battery similar to the one below. I can order one online, but you never know how long they have been sitting on the shelf. just like the UPC BATTERIES I ordered that were duds.
that is why I asked if anyone here has ordered from somewhere and had a good experience. I will check Home Depot again, the last time I checked they did not have any. I will try to see if there are any farm supply stores in my area like jtsanders mentioned.
I never took mine apart to find out and the information that came with it was translated from Czechoslovakian so not the best source of info. Your post got me curious and lo and behold, I found this. It says Alternator-
In the south it is. Here in the Northeast it’s easily 7-10 years. Heat is the killer of batteries. I’ve had batteries last 12 years before I finally had to replace it.
My 1958 Triumph Trophy 6 had a magneto and the battery was only needed to keep the lights lit when idling, otherwise the generator did not put out enough power to light the lights while idling. Even while at speed the generator barely lit the headlight to ride safely at night. This was in 1967 or 68 and after a policeman stopped me and then “escorted” me home, I bought a new battery… PS: I did not like being taken home with that dead battery, but later, I realized that the policeman really just wanted to make sure I got home safely…
