Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge GRRRR... Stupid Engineers at Triumph

I went out to my bike today after taking car of some stuff at the office. The bike is dead. No spark no power nada. I've had trouble with the battery, so I figured it was time for a new one. I call the wife to come pick me up, and I began pulling out the old battery. I pulled out my trusty factory tool kit (i.e. a single allan wrench) and went to pulling the battery. All went well until I got the the battery strap which is held on by a Torx screw!!! You can't even pull the battery with the one tool Triumph provides you! I guess it never bothered me before, and never realized how stupid it was, because I've always been in my trusty garage with all my tools present.

What repairs/maintence items can be performed with the stock tool kit, and more importantly if there is only one tool is it still considered a kit?

nuthin,
bolt up a pair of Harley Softail toolboxes like I have, and you can carry all the tools ya need! Feel fortunate, I didn't even have the allen wrench on my bike!!

The torx screw for the battery strap is a security feature to compliment the optional alarm. No point in having an alarm if any git with an allen key (like the one found behind the unsectured side cover) or an appropriate sized screwdriver can disconnect the battery. Fewer people carry secrity torx drivers on them. If it really bothers you that much, get a hacksaw and cut a slot in the head for a normal screwdriver, replace it with a normal allen headed screw, or get a security torx driver.

Our bikes don't come with tool kits, the Speedmasters only come with an allen key so you can remove the seat and fit one of the optional ones. The Americas don't even have that.

Shame on me. I didn't know there was an allen key handy for seat removal. After reading this thread I went out and found it. I learn something everytime I login. I better go read through the owners manual.

I wonder how many other 21st century bikes don't come with a basic tool kit?

You can come up with hundreds of lame reasons for not having one, but how many bikes have you ever owned until now that didn't have at least a cheap stamped set of tools that would allow you to do basic maintenance like replace the plugs, battery and filters (if tools were needed)? Not to mention the high end like BMW that have a tool kit that would cost quite a few buck to put together.

Even my 95 Trident had one.

I don't even remember the battery strap being a security bit. Mine was a normal bit, and I replaced it with a shinier screw from somewhere else on the bike that had been removed along the way. Most if not all of those little screws have the same thread so they are interchangable.