Do I have to winterize my motorcycle?

[twinswin]

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Can it really be so easy?!!

Depends on where the bike's stored, and how little you care about your bike. If you are an ardent enthusiast for whom motorcycling is more than a past time instead of somebody who simply owns a motorcycle, then yes, it could involve more, significantly more at times. Not changing your oil and filter after a season of riding before you store it? Whatever....some people just like taking better care of their bikes than that and there's nothing wrong with that, but, can you say there's nothing wrong with people who are indifferent to proper, proven storage techniques? Who would you rather buy a used bike from? "Too cool for school" types, who casually just parked their bikes for winter storage, or an ardent enthusiast who was anal about storing his bike? Why?

 

[JoeyB]

Yup that's my routine except it stays in the garage for a full disassembly and service.

Oh the days of having a low maintenance street bike.

LoL, I was going to say, I think your bike(s) get a little more attention than those of us that just ride on the street.

 

[FLSTC]

--Fill tank.
--Put in small amount of fuel stabilizer
--Install Battery Tender ($30 at Canadian Tire).
--lock and cover bike

That's my practice also. Only addition is that the last ride where I fill the tank and add stabilizer will be long enough to get to full temp.

i also keep the mouse bait stations around my garage and house...

 

[TwistedKestrel]

My 2 cents.

Fill tank with 91 Shell / no ethanol (have carb)+ Stabilizer. Pull battery and I've parked it on floor foam for the last 12 years without a problem to tires. Pic below. You probably don't need this tip being in city but living rural battling mice is common no matter how sealed up you think your garage is. I put some critter ridder in a brown paper bag and place it on the battery tray plus sprinkled on floor foam under bike.

View attachment 37614

This is a good point - I am new to rural living and didn't think about that. My brother recently had to clean a mouse nest out of his ZX-11 and the smell was baaaaaad

 

[TorontoBoy]

My dear little baby does not get washed and prettied up at any time, riding season included. I want it to start in the spring, for sure. Below is what I do. A service tech recommended I pull the battery and charge once a month with a computerized charger, in order to extend the life of our pitifully small and short-lived batteries, so I'll try this. This may extend battery life, I'm not sure. I usually don't pull my battery.

--Fill tank.
--Put in small amount of fuel stabilizer
--Install Battery Tender ($30 at Canadian Tire).
--lock and cover bike

Your bike is not a toddler that needs a cuddle and to keep warm. It is a machine made of metal and has no issues with winter. If you wish to anthropomorphize your bike, then go ahead, but to me my bike is a transportation machine that happens to be useful and fun. I still don't cuddle with it.

 

[dricked]

Depends on where the bike's stored, and how little you care about your bike. If you are an ardent enthusiast for whom motorcycling is more than a past time instead of somebody who simply owns a motorcycle, then yes, it could involve more, significantly more at times. Not changing your oil and filter after a season of riding before you store it? Whatever....some people just like taking better care of their bikes than that and there's nothing wrong with that, but, can you say there's nothing wrong with people who are indifferent to proper, proven storage techniques? Who would you rather buy a used bike from? "Too cool for school" types, who casually just parked their bikes for winter storage, or an ardent enthusiast who was anal about storing his bike? Why?

hunh? Aside from the oil change (in which I do) and a wash there's nothing more that's going to ensure your bike survives the winter better then mine. I've got a few years of winter storage under my belt and every year the bike fires up ready to ride and doesn't miss a beat.

Running the bike in the middle of winter up to operating temps and then shutting off does nothing other than introduce extra condensation (as stated earlier). You're better off to just leave it alone after you've done the 1hr worth of work to store it.

LoL, I was going to say, I think your bike(s) get a little more attention than those of us that just ride on the street.

lol ya just a little.

 

[Baggsy]

I had mine in an unheated garage for six years before the battery gave out.
It would start up fine every year in the spring.

I'm going to take the new Walmart battery out this year and see if I can get ten years out of it.

 

[GunZ McGraw]

...

 

[Wingboy]

The best way to keep mice out is to remove their necessities of life.Food,shelter and water.Cleaning your garage out is the best thing you can do.Even a ball of string left out is material to build a nest with.Plug the exhaust and intake and never store wild birdseed in your garage.

 

[dricked]

Or grass seed, dog food, garbage.

 

[Wingboy]

I left an unopened bag of "slugbait" in my shed a few years ago.The little buggers chewed thru the heavy plastic bag and stored little piles of it in every corner of the shed.But they didn't make it thru the winter.Found two of them at the bottom of a pile of summer tires.Lol.

 

[Joe Bass]

Or grass seed, dog food, garbage.

I have grass seed in the shed. I should probably put it in a pail.

Sent from a Samsung Galaxy far, far away using Tapatalk

 

[Roadghost]

The best way to keep mice out is to remove their necessities of life.Food,shelter and water.Cleaning your garage out is the best thing you can do.Even a ball of string left out is material to build a nest with.Plug the exhaust and intake and never store wild birdseed in your garage.

None of it works. You won't catch enough of them with traps. They happily eat poison mouse feed and come back. The only thing that keeps them out is a cat. Just the smell of a cat scares the hell out of them. I have two and haven't had a mouse in the garage since they arrived.

 

[Shaman]

What I do:

91 Shell (no ethanol)
Stabil
Rags in the exhaust and intakes (or tape over the intakes with painter's tape)
Change the oil before winter if I have the time
Charge the battery about January, then again in March/April

Don't start the bike, you'll never get it hot enough to boil off the moisture unless you can ride it. The rags and tape are to keep the engine from taking in air during pressure changes. You could go a bit further with it if you wanted, but that's a pretty good deterrent. Should keep mice out, too.

 

[JoeyB]

Why are a lot of posts mentioning using 91 octane gas? Do your bikes require 91 octane or do you just think it's needed for winterization?

 

[Wingboy]

Shell 91 has no ethanol.Ethanol is not good for most bikes especially during storage.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Can't agree more with the mantra of NOT starting the bike (or ANY engine/vehicle) during the winter unless you can actually take it for a drive and get it up to temperature afterwards. Starting it up for a few minutes and then shutting it off is just a recipe for the engine drawing in moisture after the fact, as others have mentioned. Lots of people cause lots of undue wear and tear on vehicles by doing so.

For those who want to read up on why many here are recommending non-ethanol gas for winter storage, Google "Ethanol phase separation" for some reading. IMHO, for recent model 4 stroke engines it's not as big a deal as some would suggest (unless you don't drive the vehicle for weeks where the phase separation comes into play) so I'm personally OK with running ethanol fuels during the summer, but for winter storage, I agree...avoid it if possible. Before I put my bike away for the winter It'll get a tank of non-ethanol and then I don't have to worry about water problems in my gas in the spring, nor all the corrosion/gung issues that often comes along with it.

 

[Wingboy]

Agreed.Modern motors are not as delicate as the interweb would lead some to believe.My concern is also for fuel tanks that are prone to damage from ethanol exposure.Some manufacturers have had problems with it.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Agreed.Modern motors are not as delicate as the interweb would lead some to believe.My concern is also for fuel tanks that are prone to damage from ethanol exposure.Some manufacturers have had problems with it.

Agree for the most part, except for 2 stroke, and old equipment.

- 2 Stroke isn't a problem with ethanol directly (as some would have you believe, they'll burn it just fine), but the issue is with the phase separation that ethanol causes which ends up with a percentage of water in the fuel. On a 2 stroke engine where the cylinder lubricating oil is part of the combustion process even a small droplet of water in the fuel can wash that essential protective oil coating off a cylinder wall for a split second, and that's all it takes for a score mark to be formed. If the fuel is to be burned promptly after being added it's not an issue, but if it's going to sit, particularly in moist environments (2 stroke boat engines in particular) it can and is a problem. 4 Stroke engines don't rely on the fuel to carry the lubricating oil and also typically use heavier oils that are not as susceptible to cylinder wash as light (mixed) 2 stroke oil is. FWIW, much of the ethanol phase separation cylinder wash issues on 2 strokes can be negated by using synthetic mix/injection oil - it's much more difficult to have effected by water cylinder wash.

Old engines typically have fuel system components that don't tolerate ethanol well, but that's a different issue and not really an issue with anything built in the last 10-15 years...but another reason for many to scream the evils of ethanol.

However, for modern 4 stroke engines..for typical use, ethanol is fine and the screams of it's evils are overdone, agreed. It's when long term periods of non-use come into play, as with winterizing as discussed here that it does matter again because..basically...it's a water sponge, and we all know gasoline engines don't like water.

 

[Drennan57]

What is this thing you use, a wire lift? Just wondering because even if you have the bike on both stands off the ground its still loading the suspension.

I'm curious.

Just wondering.

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