Stuck left side cover

[crazy steve]

I've been disassembling the sidecover locks on mine and removing the tumblers. These things can gum/freeze up so that even if you have the key it can be hard to operate. I'm not worried about theft (think about how many owners don't know it's there...), so now it's just a latch.

[jetmechmarty]

The grommets that hold the sidecovers on are still available. Most of them, anyway.

[IanDMacDonald]

Dang...it would be tough to pry that out with a screwdriver....

Yeah . . . it wasn't easy, but I did manage to open it a few times sticking a skinny straight-tip in there. I felt STUPID and angry when I was told about that lock. What makes me sound even dumber is when I was told I only had to stick half the key into the lock and turn, I was literally sticking half the key into the LATCH and turning, lol.

[skids]

As Homer says, "doh!"

[clcorbin]

I don't know that the lock does much anyway. One, as many people have found, it is pretty easy to break the lock tab off and remove the cover anyway.

Probably now as easy when these things were new and the plastic wasn't so brittle...

Two, I was able to pick the lock in about 15 seconds with a pick made from a small nail and a torsion bar made from a slightly bigger nail... And no, I'm NOT a locksmith and never have been.

These are just REALLY crappy locks!

[IanDMacDonald]

Not sure the locks are there to stop theft or sabotage. There more-so to deter the acts. It gives me piece of mind.

[DGXSER]

Fact is locks only keep honest people honest. Honest people would not investigate your side cover enough to even know it has a lock holding it in place. If they dug that deep, they ain't honest. Considering how many of those side covers have been snapped, I feel fairly certain they offer almost zero deterrence to anyone wanting to get at anything under them. "hmm, seems stuck, Pull harder...SNAPPP...oh, that's why it was so hard."

If you like the lock, keep it, if you like that it requires YOUR key, then keep the tumblers in it. My thoughts, If the lock is there, I have the right key, and the side cover is not broken, I certainly am not going to pull it apart and yank the tumblers out. But I would not consider it worth re-keying the lock, or such to keep it "lockable".

[Schming]

Not sure the locks are there to stop theft or sabotage. There more-so to deter the acts. It gives me piece of mind.

For more piece of mind you could switch the battery bracket bolt to one with a safety headed bolt like the ones in license plate install kits.

[IanDMacDonald]

That's interesting Schming. After having my 750 stolen out of my driveway, I am always open to ideas to safe-guard my bike.

[Rasputin]

I think the lock was provided as extra insurance that the left side cover would not blow off while containing your registration and insurance info. If it is bolted on and your tools are inside, it will be a bit difficult to get your tools to remove the bolt! The key is just a handy way to access stuff.
Although it is a small deterrent to theft of tools, battery etc it is not really an effective lock. As has been said a lock only stops an honest thief!
One can simply remove the lock tumblers and still have a lock that will turn with any key or even a coin if necessary, but still lock the side cover from taking it own trip while you are hightailing it down the road.
Many have had the right cover blow off but few loose the left cover unless the lock has been broken. Just my 2 cents.

[DGXSER]

I am not sure they were any more worried about the left side cover blowing off than the right, but I do believe they thought of the tools and battery as being overly accessible to a thief, so they put the lock in.

When I designed THIS modification I also thought of accessibility on the side of the road. I wanted something that did not require tools to get the cover off, yet was not prone to vibrations letting it come loose. At first I thought of using a cotter pin, but then I thought of removing the ball section from my trailer hitches and the clasp they use. Found the smaller ones at a local hardware store and that completed my fix.