I regulary check the voltage of my battery, especially so now the nights are getting darker and more load is put onto the battery.
If mine drops below 13.5v, I put it on a trickle charger immediately.
Isnt that a bit of a pain tho AA, assuming you disconnect the -ve from the battery first,
having to reset windows/radio code etc :-/
I have it on good authority, i.e. from the experts, that if you only trickle charge the battery, you don't need to disconnect it.
I find that during the winter months, especially if you only do short journeys, the battery is hardly ever fully charged, and that's when you get deteriation.
I much prefered my Sennie and my Carlton, they were both fitted with voltmeters, and you could see at a glance the state of your battery.