The canbus and the other electronic boxes on the bike need to be fed some wiggly amps before the bike will fire up, hence the need to connect up to the battery.
I've taken to not fitting the front two bolts, the ones either side of the ignition switch, just the top four that hold down the cover panel, so's it'll be a bit less faffing about should I ever need to jump start my bike (never has, says he grasping the nearest lump of wood
)
I carry one of those small jump start booster packs in my "Get-out-of Jail" tool pack, should I ever need to do the jump start thing. Only ever had to use it on my son's 990 Adventure
- he saw the light a short while later and got a F8GS, just like his dads
SteveT