A Honda Battery In A Storm
A lithium replacement, one ruined screw, and an old lesson about drilling slowly.
The Honda is a 250 from 2007, still very much alive. A battery that had been fitted during an earlier service was less convincing. The surrounding screws also carried the unmistakable signature of someone who wanted the next person to suffer.
I bought a good lithium replacement. Cold weather stopped being the old problem. Leaving the lights on remained fully supported, and ten careless minutes were enough to flatten it.
Thankfully, I owned a serious jump starter. I had bought it for the old Ford after the newer Ford Custom had already entered my life. The van did not need it that evening. The Honda absolutely did.
A serious storm arrived while the motorcycle was open. One damaged screw refused every polite method, so I had to drill it out.
That brought back a lesson from a three-metre Rubens tube I built for the physics department. Drilling many precise holes taught me that speed mostly creates heat, ruins the bit and wastes time. Slow pressure and pauses get through metal.
The lesson survived longer than the original drill bits. The screw eventually came out, the battery went in, and the old Honda started again.
Very little knowledge is truly wasted. Sometimes it waits years and returns during a storm with a motorcycle in pieces.