Winterizing Your Motorcycle

Hydraulic Brakes - Winterizing Your Motorcycle

Winterizing Your Motorcycle

Son of a gun!

Hydraulic Brakes

Winter arrived before you even saw it coming. Time to put the bike to bed for a few months and spend your nights dreaming about springtime and the open road.

Well springtime might be a real let down if your bike refuses to start because you didn't winterize your motorcycle properly. Let's take a quick look at a few ways to ensure you have an easy transition from hibernation to running free.

1. Like a fine wine.
Seriously, like a great wine your bike needs the proper environment while resting. Keep it in a stable environment away from sunlight, moisture, and temperature extremes. You want to keep it away from the windows and water. Also, cover it with a motorcycle cover. Stay away from blankets, tarps, and other covers that will hold in moisture and cause rust.
A specially designed motorcycle cover is made of a mildew resistant material.

2. Oil
Many people argue this one with me, but I always advocate changing the oil before putting up the bike for storage. Acids are formed by a running engine and I don't like them sitting there all winter doing want acids do. Plus, if you're anything like me, you'll forget over the winter when that last oil change was. Better to know you have fresh oil in there at the start of every season. Just do it - trust me.

3. The gasoline situation
Is your bike going to sit for 4+ months? If so, drain the carb! If not, just fill your tank to 95% full, add fuel stabilizer, and run it for 5-10 minutes to make sure the stabilizer is in the carb. This prevents moisture build up, and prevents the fuel from turning into "varnish" - a term used to describe the gummy, clogging residue of bad gasoline.

4. Lube the cylinder(s)?
This is a wasted step unless you're talking about LONG TERM STORAGE (6 months or more!). For a winterizing process, forget about it - totally unneeded.

5. Battery
You have two options - the easy one and the smart one. You can hook up a battery tender to the battery right on your bike and leave it there, or you can disconnect your battery, remove it from the bike, and hook the tender to it on a shelf. On protects both the battery and the bike, the other is faster to set up. Seriously, a motorcycle battery often has a small draw on it even when off and electrical gremlins just plain suck! Take the battery off and store it on a shelf. DON'T BE LAZY! Also, if you do not have a "tender", but instead have a regular charger you MUST remove the battery and charge it every 2-3 weeks to keep it fully charged.

6. Give it a bath
Wash it. Wax it! Wax is a barrier between your beautiful paint and corrosive moisture. Wipe down exposed metal with WD-40. It's all about fighting moisture. Don't use a heavy oil instead of WD-40 or you will have to clean and scrub it all off before riding the next spring. WD-40 just wipes off. Get the exhaust pipes too. Many people even plug their mufflers with plastic bags and wrap them. If you live near an ocean or large body of water you might want to do this. I just rely on WD-40 and it works for me.

7. Tires
1. Make sure they are properly inflated. As it gets colder, air condenses in your tire so check them regularly.
2. Don't let them freeze - BAD for the rubber
3. DO NOT use Armor-All or tire cleaning foam because this will make the tires hard
4. Keep the tires off the concrete - carpet is fine. It helps prevent flat spots from the tires sitting in one position for so long. Some may recommend racing bike stands,but I think that's a little bit overkill.

8. Fluid change
Every motorcycle is different, but as a rule I think you should change your brake / hydraulic clutch / coolant fluids every 15000 miles or every 2 winters - whichever comes first. If you don't want to do this yourself, many dealers offer winterizing services where they will perform many of the steps outlined here. Either way - get them done.

9. Tuck it in for the night.
Use that quality motorcycle cover and start dreaming of the new cool parts you will want to put on your bike over the winter - now's the time to customize her!

10. Spring is in the Air
Ready to ride? Wait up a second.
1. Uncover sleeping beauty.
2. Reconnect the battery (please hook it up positive to positive and negative to negative...)
3. Top off all fluids in case you have a minor leak
4. Inspect tires.
5. Go for a ride, but remember you've been out of the saddle for a while. Take it easy for the first hundred miles or so.