How to Avoid Setting Your Motorcycle On Fire | MC Garage

Bonfires are fun, but not when it’s your beloved bike that’s fueling the blaze. In this MC Garage vid, we show ya a simple step that’ll help ensure your motorcycle doesn’t go up in flames the next time you’re working with your battery.

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We're all about teaching you useful stuff here at the MC Garage, and it's recently come to our attention that a lot of people are performing a very simple procedure in a dangerous way. I'm talking about disconnecting and connecting your battery terminals. It's one of those basic tasks where if you don't know the risk, you might end up standing in front of a smoldering motorcycle with no idea what happened.

Let’s get the tip to you right away, and then I’ll explain why it’s important: If you’re working with the battery, disconnect the negative terminal first and reconnect it last.

Here’s the situation: The negative lead is connected to the chassis, so the entire frame and all the bolts and brackets are grounded. That means that for the positive terminal, anything around it that’s metallic is somewhere current would like to flow so it can get back to the negative side of the battery. So if you’re removing the positive wire first and accidentally touch the tank bracket or the frame or a bolt head with your wrench or screwdriver, you’re going to short the battery. And a shorted battery is going to dump a lot of current very quickly.

If you’re lucky, the short will just throw some big sparks, you’ll drop your wrench and get freaked out, and that’ll be the end of it. If you’re less lucky, the wrench or screwdriver will weld itself to the terminal, turn red hot, and melt or ignite anything it’s near, all within about a second. I’ve witnessed it myself and have seen evidence of it on several bikes I’ve worked on, so it’s really not as uncommon as you think. It’s also really easy to avoid.

The best way to avoid the fireworks altogether is to remove the negative terminal first. If you start there, the only way to cause a short is by direct contact with the positive terminal, which should be shielded with an insulated cover. And once the negative cable is off, if you touch anything with your wrench while removing the positive cable, nothing happens because you no longer have a complete circuit. See? No sparks, no fire, no smoldering motorcycle.

Another tip for working with electrics is to remove jewelry like your wedding ring or bracelets, since those too can short out a circuit and really ruin your day.

[Banditmanuk]

30 + years of working with bikes and never shorted a battery but I can certainly see the logic in doing the negative first. Good common sense stuff.

[PiperFishing]

"Remove first, apply last." In reference to the negative. Always remembered it that way.

[maxwellm.]

I was taught... its negative that you are taking the wires off... so you take off the negative first... and when your putting the wires back on its a positive thing so you put the positive on first.

[GETUPANDGO]

I've had many debates with people about this, glad that Ari has confirmed that I've been doing it the proper way. I did short out a boat battery once when I was younger, and that is an experience I've never wanted to repeat

[franciscomendoza]

Just as an added precaution I put some insulation tape on the negative terminal in case the cable gets to move and I didn't notice it, in most motorcycles the battery cable are really short and barely move to far from it. 👍🏼

[gsmith]

MC Garage is one fine program. Never new this information, but now I do. Keep up the good work.

[Fierces]

This is an EXCELLENT video and warning for everyone who will work with electrical systems in vehicle's. Please continue with your great work, you are clear and straight to the point.

[Ihelpanytime]

I see MC Garage episode, I click.

That simple.

[shalaka]

We can all use a reminder like this, it's easy to forget. Thanks for a simple, but needed, video!

[lekim]

I love how there is 0 dislikes. Only ppl that actually wanna see this watch it (so far).
Good tips like always and happy new year to everyone!!

[jdman]

Keep up the great vids guys!

I'm a mechanic by trade and this was one of the very first things I learned when working on cars or any equipment that has a battery, always remove the ground circuit first. I say ground circuit because some of the older stuff was a positive ground. Also, never wear any kind of jewelry was good to point out. A buddy of mine lost his ring finger due to his wedding ring. I wore mine on my wedding day and the honeymoon. Haven't worn it since and that was 24 years ago. Luckily the wife is in total agreement on this LOL.

[matthewkirsch]

Thank you for covering this.  Understanding the basics of Voltage/Current goes a long way.  Someone told me years ago that exploding batteries were the leading cause of unnatural blindness (Lead acid batteries using sulfuric acid as the electrolyte and charging liberating hydrogen gas being a bad combination with sparks).  Batteries carry a lot of energy and it's best to respect them.

[PavanMS]

Great tip! I need to disconnect all the negative terminals of my life as well now. Thanks for the motivation.

[CarlosFandango]

Simple but very good advice.
You are quickly becoming a "watch all videos" channel for me 👍

[noskillrequired]

there arent enough of these videos. love how about a video about fork angle

[povlhalberg]

Thanks for the heads up. Safety is key.

[roryonabike]

I got a real kick out of this. Great delivery. Interesting that you've actually seen this happen :) Very much looking forward to future videos on the electrics.

[svnyc]

Great idea for a video. A simple tip but so important. Looking forward to your videos covering the electrical system!

[reduardocc]

Something so simple and yet so important!!!
Thanks a lot Ari...

[sanxi]

I mean I knew that I had to disconnect the negative first and connect it last. It is the same when hooking up a jump starter, but didn't know it was THAT risky. Thanks Ari!