Strap On!
What To Do When Your H-D Battery Dies
Here is a simple tip that is so easy and convenient, you’ll kick yourself for not thinking of it. Then you’ll want to kick Harley for not already doing it. Then you’ll kick yourself again, because the miserly engineering god of Harley-Davidson improvements has finally granted this wish for 2008. So that only leaves about a bazillion people facing a similar scenario. After thousands of good miles together, and from our experience, about two to three years of service, your battery has finally kicked the bucket. New battery in hand, you’ll be good to go in no time, right? Not really. Let’s stop and think for a minute. Sure, you only have to change your battery once in a leap year, but how many times have you had to disconnect it for service? Ah hah! With that in mind, let’s do something to reduce the amount of cursing required to slip a 10mm wrench between your battery post and the frame.
Before installing a new battery, we like to make an impromptu carrying strap out of packing tape. There are two important aspects to this, the first is that it must be packing tape, and the second is that you need to use a lot of tape. Packing tape is mandatory for the same reason the USPS likes it more than duct tape – it doesn’t sweat goo like duct tape does. When duct tape gets hot (like in a confined space near some heat source – hint, hint) the sticky resin “sweats” and gets all over other stuff. To the USPS this means other people’s mail, and to you it means a big mess. Now that we’ve handled that source of sticky, let’s deal with the other. In order to properly construct your strap, make a loop of tape that is about six inches longer than the outside dimension of your battery. Without cutting the tape, fold it over and continue until you have stuck an identical amount of tape to your already configured loop. You did it! A completely sticky free handle and a (literally) invisible helper the next time you need to power down your mount.
Looks tight in there, doesn’t it? Now try turning a 10mm wrench about 40 times without cursing.
Looped around properly, the packing tape will not be sticky and will be strong enough to support even the bulkiest touring battery.
Lots easier than trying to pry your fingers into the small space between battery and frame!
