The plastic on all these bikes is sub-optimal, but it's here to stay.
My wife rides the Super Cub and we recently went out to ride after a couple weeks off and the battery wouldn't turn the starter. Fortunately the Super Cub is pretty easy to pop start: I put it in 2nd and slightly depressed the shifter to get it in neutral, pushed it down the driveway and let go of the shifter.
Put an
SAE socket on for the battery tender to keep it from discharging hugely.
The whole battery experience is certainly a buzz-kill. Every step of the way there's no room, screws to fall into oblivion, and you finally pull out something that probably wouldn't start my riding mower.
But IMHO the fun we have on these damn things far outweighs my annoyance with plastic. Really wish I'd figured out how fun little bikes are when I was younger. Now I'm old and broken down and can't go nearly as crazy as I'd like.
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