A battery tender really helps keep your battery fresh. Also do a search on the manual cam chain adjuster, which replaces your auto camchain adjuster. The acct puts too much pressure on cam chain and makes it too hard for the motor to spin. My friend put the mcct on his '03 and '04 gg 450's and remedied the situation. Also put the longer '05 kickstart lever on your '04. This really works well with the mcct mod to kickstart your bike when or if battery goes low.