Winterization Tips?

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Danielle Marie<3

New member
I am going to be putting my bike in for the winter, but, unfortunately, it will be outside, though in a car-port. Any suggestions on preserving the chrome and all that? I am going to WAX it all, then spray some of that stuff that Walmart sells, called "Pig Spit" it will coat everything with a fine layer of oil. Then I will cover it up.. I do will srart it up almost every week during the winter months, when I had my vulcan, that is what I did. Anyhow, any suggestions welcome.
 
First suggestion: Use the search tool here. Good keywords might be "winter" and "storing". I'm pretty sure that there are at least a half dozen threads covering that already. :whistle:

What you should NOT do is start it unless you can actually ride it far enough to get it up to temperature. Otherwise you leave water condensation in the pipes and other places that are not good.
 
change the oil, fill the tank, add some fuel stabilizer, disconnect/remove the battery or use a battery tender. If your bike is carburetted, drain the carbs. Lube the cables, and make sure your tires are at correct pressure.

+1 on Easy Rider's comment on not starting it every month
 
My strategy, remove the battery, drain the carbs. You can leave gas in the tank with fuel stabilizer. Personally, i like to drain the carbs as the fuel orifices are rather small, and varnish builds up over time.

Place the battery in a closet, on some newspaper and connect to a trickle charger. Sounds like a pain? Well somewhat, but then a dead battery in spring is a pain too. The icing on the cake is when you go to the store and "we just sold the last one" syndrome kicks in. That's when it's really fun.

I only like to drain the carbs as I have worked on several tractors, mowers, and other assorted equipment that required rebuilds, or spraying carb cleaner down the throat of the carb to get the equipment running again due to varnish buildup.

No gas - no possibility of varnish.
 
I will probably fill the tank with fresh gas with StaBil, drive the bike for 10 miles or more, enough to get the StaBil thru the carbs and the engine warmed up real good.
Then run the engine with the Petcock turned off until the engine stumbles and shut her down.....I'll connect up my Battery Tender and leave it be. Oh yea, and Lube my chain.....

dan
 
shutting off the petcock will usually do, but leaving the drain open on the carbs will keep any gas from building back up in the bowls over winter.

Unless your expecting a few warm days here and there, in which case, don't drain the carbs and do exactly what you said.
 
I don't know where you are, but if you winters get real cold, take the battery out of the bike and keep it someplace warm. If it freezes, it could swell and crack. Unlikely, but it happened to me. Luckily I found it before it thawed, so no leaking.

The only other thing I do is keep the tires off the ground, especially if you are parking on concrete. This will help keep the tires from drying and/or cracking. I used to use to use thick cardboard and stack it 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Plywood works too.
 
Rock, I think you finally found a good use for wd40.

Usually causes more problems than hit helps. Collects too much dust and all.

LPS1 works pretty well.
 
When I had my '03 Vulcan, I started it every two weeks or so, and let it get to operating temp, and nothing ill happened to the bike, same with a Honda 500 Silverwing I had, both carb models. I left the battery in the bikes in both instances, rode the Vulcan three years on the same battery, Silvering on two with this strategy.

Everyone bitches bla bla bla, about using the search tool, and in the time you took to type your subtle little anecdote, you could have answered it without the "SEARCH" reference, as I see no one else had the same break-down as you did...

SO much for a community of people that just want to talk and ask about stuff. SO, I will follow suit, and just tell people to SEARCH from now on, as it is ALL obviously here, somewhere already, right? So there is absolutely no need for anyone to reply with anything OTHER than SEARCH then? SO, please, in the future, no one offer any help, just reply with one word, that being "SEARCH." We do not need any, idle chit-chat, and ANY friendly conversation, ever... No stupid smilies either... Reply with One word, a magic word too, SEARCH
 
After doing the battery and fuel preserver routine, go down to your friendly RV dealer and get a bag of water absorbent (DriZone or equivalent) Put it in a plastic pan under your bike, and cover the entire machine with a big sheet of plastic, trying to get it as airtight as possible. Then put a tarp over the whole works to discourage the curious. Now condensation won't cause rust spots where you didn't expect them, and you can go riding in the spring without spending an entire weekend cleaning off the oil spray that probably didn't do much more than attract dirt and dead bugs anyway.
 
Feel better now. I hope so. Tirades like this tend to inhibit fee and civil discussion as much (or more) than a simple "Try a search" do. :ooops:

There are about a half dozen or so topics that have been beat to death over and over AND OVER again. For those few topics, I think it is quite appropriate to suggest a search instead of starting yet-another string of messages that repeat the same stuff again and again. There are LOTS of other topics to talk about that haven't been covered already. :bluethum:

YMMV!
 
Never thought about parking on cardboard. I suppose it could be an issue. Learn something every day; usually forget something every day too.

and for this one



Brave man, admits he actually owned a Silverwing.

While they are quite nice from what I've heard, Silverwings or so $$$ that for the same price or less you could get something really nice.
 
Um, you probably said all that before: SEARCH Duh...

If all people did was SEARCH and not ask or say anything, the forum would be DEAD, because no one would, well, say or ask for anything. I don't care what you say, if I have a question, I am going to ask, if that is a BANNING offense, then oh well, see ya.
 
I park mine on two layers of heavy duty tarps. I also put up a tarp curtain on one side of the car-port.

Yeah, I had, I think it was an 82 Silverwing (Paid 600.00) 500cc, AND, it was Canadian. You know how US has MP/H, then under it the KP/h? Well, this one had KP/H as the primary, and MP/H under it, was neat. IT had 98,000 kilometers on it when I got it (Odometer was canadian too). SOld it with 128,000 or so Kilometers, AND, I sold it for 800.00, made so I made 200. IT was the "Y" twin, was neat. In fact, my uncle John got another one sitting with just under 10k miles on it, amazing; and it has the FULL fairing, radio, lowers, everything you could get on them. HE got that for 500.00, but has to give it back because the guy can't come up with the title. What a shame, I would have bought it as a secondary bike for my brother to ride, but no title, no ride...

But, I bet I can SEARCH for answers...
 
No, of course it isn't. Wearing a big 'tude like a badge of honor however.......... :fight2:

I'm guessing that we average something over 50 new posts a day. I don't think the forum is in danger of wasting away if people search for things like oil, gas, chain and pipes before asking for specifics.
 
Well, you all could Move to Florida and not have to winterize at all....I ride mine year around....gets a little cool here but not enough to put the bike away....engine=Florida=weather=better then snow....LOLOL
 
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