A couple of years ago, I wanted a "factory activated" battery and bought it directly from the Yuasa corporate web site. Paid that premium for that. As it turns out, what they did was forward that purchase order to the nearest distributor to me, and they sent me a -BS battery. Of course I made that WTF phone call to them. After about 30 minutes, they had me convinced that a "factory activation" was nothing more than performing the exact procedure in the instructions that Yuasa sent out with that -BS battery. I could send it back and have them do the exact same thing to it if I wanted. But the shipping would cost even more to return it to me because it was now a filled and activated battery instead of an inert battery. So, after a little shopping around to purchase a modern battery charger with an AGM setting, the "factory activation" was performed by me using the factory activation instructions provided by the factory. And it was all good.
(What is the different in an "AGM Charger" and a regular one? If you use a regular one will it hurt an AGM battery? Will a 2013 RT Limited charging system be compatible with an AGM battery and work OK?)
The point is that nobody here was ever suggesting that a person simply put acid in the battery and slap it right into a Spyder and expect the charging system to do this. And nobody was suggesting that a person put in the acid and just slap it on any old battery charger without following the proper procedure. That's agreed. The instructions are provided by the factory in order to perform a proper activation. If a person can read, has the correct charger, and can do basic math, they can do a correct activation.
It's incorrect to simply make the blanket statement that a -BS battery is the wrong one, or can't be properly activated at home. And after my experience with the whole thing, it's my personal opinion that this mythical "factory activation" is just that.
BTW Roger, that is one sweet looking machine.