Winter Storage - by Jeffrey Fillmore on 11/14/2002
These are the basic steps:
Find a good place to store the bike where it won't be in your way and you won't damage it when you're moving that 12' artificial X-mas tree into the house.
Wash, dry, and wax your bike. If you do it before warming it up, you'll evaporate all of those little pools of water down by the cylinder bases.
Take your bike out for one last fling if possible to get it warmed up and top off the gas. If you can't ride it, at least run it for a while to get it up to operating temperature and then top off the tank with gas from a can.
Change you oil and filter while it's still warm and burn your arm one last time on the exhaust headers. Run the engine for a minute or two to get fresh oil on all of the internals.
Add some fuel stabilizer to the tank. Oh yeah, if you bought a can of stabilizer designed to treat 15 gallons, don't dump the entire bottle into your tank. If you do, your bike will be even harder to start in the spring and it will run like crap. Just enough to treat 4 1/2 gallons will be fine, thank you.
Pull the spark plugs and spray some fogging oil into the holes. Crank the bike a couple of times to coat the cylinders and replace the plugs. At this point, I'd put some new plugs in with a little coat of oil on the threads. If you do, use some cheap ones as the stabilizer in the fuel may foul them when you run it next season. If you have a MS4, look at the link to Bruce's site below, there's a slightly different procedure.
Clean and lube your chain and sprockets. Jason Tucker wrote this thorough (if a bit anal retentive) overview of chain cleaning.
http://www.sepa-monster.org/members/jtucker/chain/ Put a little corrosion inhibitor on exposed metal parts that might rust or corrode. Bruce says WD-40, but I prefer either a specific chemical designed for the job like S-100 or a shop rag with a little clean sewing machine oil on it.
Put some old (but CLEAN!) socks over the ends of the exhausts and intake snorkles to keep the little critters from nesting in there. If you have a K&N air filter, clean it, oil it, and replace it.
Many recommend removing the battery for the winter. If you do this, charge it after you take it out and then put it in a box and put it somewhere safe and out of the way. I have clean, sealed, maintenance free batteries in most of my bikes with Battery Tender connectors on them. I just rotate the tenders through the bikes every couple of weeks. If you do this, spray some of that battery terminal sealant on the terminals and connectors to prevent growing corrosion on them.
Move the bike into your designated storage area and put it up on stands if you can. The stand will not only save your tires from stress, but it will also be much harder for your rotten little nephews or Aunt Erma's poodle to knock over when they come over for Thanksgiving dinner.
Assuming that you can store your bike indoors, and you plan to cover your bike, use something like a sheet instead of a motorcycle cover designed to protect it from the elements. Most covers designed to be used outside are waterproof and may cause humidity to build up under the cover and cause rust.
Bruce Meyers at BCM Ducati wrote this article for the shop
website.
http://www.bcmducati.com/article.cfm?id=62&type=18 (link no longer works)
There are other opinions, but that's a good place to start.
Some other winter storage links:
http://www.ducatisuite.com/winterize.html http://www.mansfieldcycles.com/WinterStorageTips.htm http://www.procycle-hdd.com/service/winter_storage.html Taking your monster out of winter storage
These steps assume that you used the winter storage FAQ when putting your bike away for the winter. If you didn't, pick and choose the steps as required:
Uncover your bike, disconnect the battery tender (if applicable) and roll it out into the glorious spring sunlight.
If you took the battery completely out of your bike, give it a good charge and re-install it. I like to use the spray battery terminal goop on the terminals. I also have Battery Tender leads permanently connected to the terminals. If I was always clipping charging leads to my battery terminals, I might skip the goop because it would probably make it harder to get a good connection and might get messy after a while.
Take the covers off of the exhausts and intake snorkles. If your replaceable paper filter got dusty over the winter (it shouldn't if you have a closed air box and you covered the snorkles), blow the dust off. If you have a K&N air filter and an open air box, and the filter got dusty, go ahead and clean, oil, and replace it.
Wash all of the dust and corrosion inhibitor off of your bike and dry it. It wouldn't kill you to wax your bike again now, too.
Your chain and sprockets should be pretty clean still, but a quick wipe down with an oily rag wouldn't hurt.
Double-check that your spark plugs are installed securely and that the cables are on correctly. I usually just pull them off and re-install them so that I can hear that reassuring "click" as they seat.
Check and adjust your tire pressure. Check the general condition of your tires.
Check your oil level.
Check that your lights and all of your indicators work properly.
Pump your brakes and clutch a few times to be sure that you have nice, firm levers all the way around.
Although nothing should have changed over the winter, it couldn't hurt to take your torque wrench (you DO have a torque wrench, right?) and go around the bike and re-torque some fasteners. Pay particular attention to things that could hurt you if they came undone like rear axle nuts, front axle pinch bolts, triple-clamp pinch bolts, clip-on or bar clamp bolts, etc...
Start your bike. It might be a little tough to start, so give it a twist of the throttle or two. Once it's started, let it idle for about 10 minutes or until it idles smoothly without the choke.
OK, you're ready to take it out for a ride. BUT WAIT... I bet that you're probably thinking that you can just jump on your bike in your jeans and your Old Navy sweatshirt and take your bike for a spin around the block. The truth is that you probably suck at riding motorcycles right now because you're rustier than Aunt Polly's Edsel. Go ahead and take the time to put on all of your gear before you ride. It could save you some skin when you forget which side the brake is on, and it'll probably remind you that you need to drop that 10 pounds that you put on over the holidays.
Now that you're geared up go ahead and take your bike for a ride. But I'm serious... Take it easy for the first couple of rides.
Burn through that tank of gas with the stabilizer in it and then fill it up with gas and add some fuel system cleaner to the full tank. Remember, that bottle of fuel system cleaner is probably enough to treat 12 gallons of gas and your Monster tank is just a tad over four gallons, so just put about a third of the bottle into your tank and dump the rest of it in the tank of your Pinto.
After you've burned through the tank with the stabilizer and the second tank with the fuel system cleaner, you should probably change your oil. I KNOW... I know... you changed it right before you put it in storage. While that fresh oil was in your tank all winter it was probably soaking up all of the little deposits of sulfur and other combustion by-products that have accumulated in your crankcase so go ahead and change it again. If you really want to be a cheap bastard, you probably don't need to change your oil filter or check the filter screen, so you can get away with it for the price of the oil and one .50 cent crush washer.
OK, you can now go out and enjoy the rest of your riding season. Ride fast, Ride safe.
Note: I was serious about taking it easy for the first couple of weeks back on your bike. Not only are you rusty, but if you live in the snow belt there's a good chance that the roads still have some significant deposits of salt, sand, and gravel on them. If you're like me, and are trying to get out as soon as possible, there's even still a chance of ice on the roads in the morning. This wouldn't be a bad time at all for signing up for the MSF Advanced Riders Course or if you really have the need for speed sign up for a track school. Just be careful as you get re-acquainted with your riding skills because dumping your bike and possibly hurting yourself is a bummer way to start your riding season. Consider this a warning from the voice of experience.
-Jeffrey Fillmore / Rev. Deadpan
