I just installed the pig tail for my battery tender on my battery. If I hook it up every night after I get home to the tender will this be good for my battery or bad? It would be really easy my tender is right there when i park I can just plug it in no problem.

Don't know what bike you have but it won't be bad to hook up your tender.  I don't see why you would want to do it every night.  You can just hook it in and leave it.  Remember while you ride your battery gets charged up.  The tender is more of a trickle charger so it maintains more than it charges.  Also noteworthy is that batteries loose more power quicker when its cold.  How often do you ride?

Unless your tender's busted then it'll do good - in theory.  IF you're riding everyday it really won't do much.  Tenders are more for storage.  As noted above, each time you ride you're charging up the battery.  If you're riding often the battery won't really have the time to drain down enough to warrant the use of a tender. 

IF you're plannig to have the bike sit for a week + hook it up.  Other wise, don't really worry.

its a 695
I ride every day

Don't even worry about it.  If you are not going to be riding for 3-4 days AND there is cold weather then you can hook it up.  Otherwise, if you ride the bike for 25 minutes or more at a time,  you really don't need to hook it up unless its not ridden for 7 days or more.  Take into consideration that If you ride less then 15 minutes then it won't charge as much as it would if you ride for 30.   

Ok, factors to consider for hooking up your tender.  Mind you the times I put down are rather arbitrary and YMMV

Pro:
Lots of load on battery (lots of starts with short running time between them)
Cold weather
Battery will not be actively charged for extended period (IE when you can't ride for 30+ min for a while)
Weak/Old battery

Con:
Regular active charging of battery (IE Riding every day for 30 or more min at a spell)

A friend w/ 10 bikes used to hook his tender to his stuff. Until he discovered it was masking a bad batt. and stranded him in a tunnel.
I use mine when I remember to plug it in. Much easier starting w/ full battery.
Required in the cold of winter on my duc.

At what RPM's is the battery charging? I guess just cruising around wont do it but I am on the freeway at about 5K for 20 mins to and from work everyday and i was having issues with my battery not having enough juice to start in the morning. I found out I had a bad battery and now that I have a new one I want to make sure this one lasts.

Pretty much any RPM that is going to make the bike move, will have the alternator put out enough power to charge a battery.  Even at idle, there should be a small surplus of juice and at least enough to be running the bikes electrics even if there was no battery.  Old kick start bikes don't have a battery, get 'em going and they run fine.

And here's where I segue - a battery tender will help a fading system limp along for longer.  But there's a difference between a failing battery and failing charging system.  J.P. your buddy probably had a charging system that was crapping out.  If you've got a good charging system and bad batt, the bike will keep running once you get it going.  But will start to struggle when starting the bike or after it's been left to sit for a while. 

If the charging system is failing the bike starts drawing from the battery to keep going - go long enough and the battery runs out of power and the bike craps out.   

DEVO your story is totally typical of a failing battery.  Low cranking power, but once you got the engine fired it'd stay running.  Also the longer you let it sit and the cooler the ambient temp the harder the time you had.

Quote from: yuu on August 28, 2008, 05:54:47 PM
a battery tender will help a fading system limp along for longer.  But there's a difference between a failing battery and failing charging system. 

I have a tender and love it, but if I had to get a new one I will likely go with OptiMate as it have a light indicating the battery isn't holding much charge anymore:
http://www.webbikeworld.com/r3/motorcycle-battery-charger/optimate-3/

Yep I would be warming up my bike and in typical "695 Fashion" it would cough and die. When I went to restart there wasn't enough juice to even turn the motor. I have replaced my battery and will do every thing possible to make this one last more than my old one (about a year and 3 months)
Thanks for all the responses!