Steering stem nuts

[Steve_H80]

Why do manufacturers use such weird designs for the steering stem nut? My Silverwing has an 8 sided nut, the v-strom a weird star shaped thing.
Every other nut, bolt & screw on every bike I've ever tinkered with has been normal 6 sided, torx or JIS so why go weird on this one?

[trickywoo]

I think because it looks nice.

You don’t often need a dedicated socket as a 6 or 12 point will normally fit ok.

[TwinKam]

To stop meddlers meddling.