Some newbie questions

Fisrt off.welcome.
Second, what year bike is this?
Third. Honda tool kits suck. Count yourself lucky you got the screwdriver.
04-07 bikes, pass on the extended warranty. Only two issues to speak of are a weak tank weld in some bikes that Honda honors favorably and stators that burn up...sometimes. More so on the 04-05 bikes. But you can fix that at home.
08+ bikes with the oil burning issue.....I'd invest in a warranty.

hjwolters said:

I guess there are two questions that I have. One is about the toolkit. My dealer gave me exactly one screwdriver as what comes with the bike. Seriously? Is there an optional toolkit one can buy? I need to at least change the preload once in a while.

Click to expand...

Isn't it ridiculous that Honda calls that a "kit"? :laugh: Even the screwdriver is a POS. If you want something more substantial, you'll have to go aftermarket. Something like a CruzTOOLS kit or the like.

hjwolters said:

Secondly: extended warranty. My dealer wants to sell me the Western extended warranty for 625 bucks. I think I would prefer the factory warranty. I have heard that this would run 400 bucks. is that true?

Click to expand...

My advice would be to avoid the aftermarket warranty. I got my additional 4 year Honda Protection Plan warranty from a dealer on ebay for $400.

I don't do extended warranties on anything - cars, bikes, electronics, appliances, etc. In 40 years of ownership of such things I figure I have saved AT LEAST $1000 per year, or 40 large in total over the years. I have been lucky and spent no more than $800 for any repairs that would have been covered (I do buy quality - Sony, Honda, Etc.). Many plans have so many exclusions and restrictions that they won't pay anyway - we call them Swiss Cheese because they have so many holes in them.

That said, if you do go for it the factory plan usually has fewer holes in it than the independent plan, and if you do get into a disagreement over a claim Honda is probably going to give in more easilly because they have more of a reputation to worry about.

just grab a couple allen wrenches, a knife, and a multitool, and you can pretty much do anything you want.. i supplied my toolkit from home depot for about $15..