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Inside the Garage: Winter Storage

Ordinary riders doing extraordinary things

Inside the Garage: Winter Storage

This would apply to COLD storage for the off season.
#1, when the season is over for riding, park the bike with some gas stabilizer in the tank and run the bike for a few minutes to get it thru the pump and carbs/ throttle bodies. This keeps our cranky fuel from turning everything to a shitty, headache inducing, spring time goo!
#2, if possible, fog the motor! Preferably thru the plug holes. This will help keep any corrosion from forming on plugs, valves, seats and even rings. All material dependant obviously.  Titanium valves and beryllium seats clearly wont corrode, but it won’t hurt anything to get some lube in the cylinders.
#3, DO NOT CHANGE THE OIL BEFORE PARKING IT!  the motor WILL form condensation inside over the winter with temp changes. Mainly in the spring and fall. Its just the nature of metal in extreme temp changes. And that condensation will collect in the oil over time.
#4, DO NOT START THE BIKE TIL SPRING AND YOU ARE READY TO RIDE! Everybody thinks they need to go start the bike for a few minutes every week or so. Thats the WORST thing to do! Not only will it not warm up long enough to burn off the condensation you just created, but all the water in the motor just went THRU the motor. That does the bearings no favors!
#5, come myth is that you need to move the valves or back them off to save the springs from getting weak. FALSE! (THIS CAME FROM AN ENGINEER AT MANLEY PERFORMANCE) no valve spring made since the 40s has needed to be backed off. They will not weaken sitting stored over winter with a valve open.
#6, keep the battery on a maintainer or in a warm place at home/in the house…both are ideal!
 #7,fill the gas tank. Keeps the open space to a minimum and less area for condensation to form INSIDE the tank. No rusty tank! And no water in the gas!
#8, change the oil in spring, before you start it up and get ready to hit the road!
This is from my 18 years of winter storage and ive never had issues from the bike sitting in a cold storage shop.
– words by Nitrous Chris