I just noticed both my wife's and my 09's don't show anything in the battery check window.  I honestly don't know if I have ever checked this before (only have 1,300 miles).  I did have service at 600 but haven't checked it since.

I was planning on riding to work tomorrow (75 miles roundtrip).  How critical is it that I add water.  Can I make the trip without damaging the battery?

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply.  Do you have to remove the battery completely to add water?

Just a quick followup to provide some learning experience to other newbies and a laugh for the old timers.

I estimate the whole process of removing the battery should have taken less than 10 minutes.  Unfortunately the the screw on one of the cover was mostly stripped before I started and completely stripped before I was able to remove it.  So of course this meant a trip to the hardware to get a screw extractor (didn't already have one).  Finally get the screw removed, and the battery out of the bike.  Low and behold the water level was perfectly fine.  I couldn't see it through the window on the bike but could see it just fine holding it in front of my face.  Of course then I had to go back to buy a screw to replace the one that was stripped (and M5 truss screw in case anyone is wondering).  Of course they didn't have a black screw, so bought the stainless and painted it.  

Well at least I got the experience of removing the battery right.  

Sorry. We could have told you that you can't see the water through the gap in the battery box. "Someday" I'm going to fix that with a sabre saw and a fine cutting blade. Or get a sealed battery.