Well, I’ve had the Fazer for a month now and she’s a dream. Did a run up north to see GeordieGee a couple of weeks back and, apart from frozen fingers (now solved by the purchase of some glove-liners), not a problem occurred.

The only issue I’ve had is a maddening one. It’s to do with the battery dying and I’ve looked in my Haynes and in a general techbook I’ve got and can’t find an explanation. Under general riding, there isn’t a problem. Did 600 miles the weekend I went to see Gee and no battery issues at all. But 3 times now, upon getting home from work I’ve had a dead battery. The only common factor each time has been heavy London traffic, which has meant a lot of filtering and therefore a very hot engine. When I say a lot of filtering, I mean 8 or 9 miles at 10-15mph (they keep shutting the M25 )

I’ve checked the battery with an Oxford optimiser and it says the cells are fine. There are no cracks in the casing, the connectors are clean and I’ve made sure they’re tight on. The battery itself doesn’t get hot either.

The first sign is the headlights noticeably dimming and brightening with the revs. When I get home and park up I switch off the engine then try to re-start and get nothing (sometimes it turns briefly).

Now, I’ve gotten into the habit of checking whenever I get home, and I’ve started keeping a charger at work too, so it hopefully won’t strand me (in the winter I only really ride to work and back) but it would be nice to get this sorted for next year.

Any of you electrical geniuses able to point me in the right direction?

Sounds very like you have a loose terminal on either the Positive or negative main (heavy) battery leads. It's a good idea to regularly undo each connection on these leads in turn and clean and re tighten and possibly cover in Vaselene, often solves a lot of minor electrical niggles.

I had the same problem on my VT the battery was only a year old, I had it checked and it was faulty, replaced the battery now its fine.

And with the earth lead, don't forget to check the other end where it's fastened to the frame - people say "I've checked the battery connexions" but they forget that one!