Winter Motorcycle Storage

[upbeat music] Let's discuss storage. Whether you want to call it long-term storage, winter storage. Storage is when the motorcycle is not in use for whatever reason. Again, let's not call it winter storage because the winter in New England can't be compared to the winter in Anchorage. I, myself personally, don't recommend removing spark plugs, filling cylinders with oil, fogging cylinders. Again, do your research. Much like the climate and conditions that you ride in. Again, that's gonna be dictated by how long the bike is down for winter storage or long-term storage. I highly recommend whether it be fuel injected or carburetted. If the bike is to sit stationary for let's say more than four or six weeks, to add some type of stabilizer product to the fuel system. After I add the fuel stabilizer product, I like to start the motorcycle, make sure that it circulates completely through the fuel system, shut the motorcycle off and if the motorcycle's carburetted or has a fuel shut-off valve. Shut the valve completely off. This allows the stabilizer to stay in the float bowl of the carburetor and protect any of the rubber components during extended storage. Again, it's nice in a perfect world, if you can have the motorcycle off of any cold surfaces, no matter what someone tells you, if you believe you have a heated area that you park your motorcycle. Let's say your garage. The garage is heated. Every night, someone comes home, opens the garage door, pulls in a car, closes the garage door. At that point, they've allowed a big wave of cold air to flow into the garage and settle on the floor. If your motorcycle's direct indirect contact with the concrete, you will develop a condensation line where the cold air settles every night . If you do have access to a lift, it's nice to leave the motorcycle up on a lift. If you don't. It's nice to at least raise the tires off the cold concrete, maybe high enough where it's out of a condensation line, if the doors are open and closed regularly. Again, battery maintenance is important. You can use a battery maintainer. There's many of them out there. Do your research, buy something that is directly applicable to your needs. I, myself, like to remove the battery completely from the motorcycle. My motorcycle stay in unheated conditions throughout the New England winter. Again, New England winters limited to how bad the winter gets. We found ourselves riding motorcycles on Christmas day in 60 degree weather. I've also put my motorcycle away before Halloween and haven't ridden it again until after March. Some winters are more harsh than others. Use your best judgment. Don't prep a motorcycle three or four times throughout a storage season or long-term storage if it's not necessary. Make sure your motorcycle, if you're planning to ride it, is ready to ride. You don't want to have to spend an hour wiping off some greasy substance that you put all over your motorcycle as if you were gonna encapsulate it in ice and jettison it into space. All right, again the battery can be unhooked from the negative cable or from the negative log on the battery. I myself put my battery in the house on a shelf where it's warm. I keep it on a battery maintainer. I keep the maintainer plugged into, switched into a switched outlet. Every time I go into that room, I turn on the light switch. It gives the battery a little bit of trickle charge. You don't run the risk of overcharging or undercharging a battery while it's being stored. Again, they sell a number of bubbles, covers, environmentally controlled areas that you can keep your motorcycle. Do your research. Buy what you can afford. Buy what's most practical for your storage. I myself use a nice clean sheet. I try not to let it touch the ground when it's covering the motorcycle. That way if the floor does get damp, it doesn't wick up into the sheet. Another word to the wise, you rode the motorcycle all summer. I'm sure you've been to a number of events. Check your saddlebags. If you've left anything that might entice rodents, surely they'll find it. They'll dig through a leather saddlebag to get to half a sandwich you left in there that you forgot about. Long-term storage. Let's say a motorcycle thats gonna be out of commission more than six months. I'd highly recommend using a clean rag or a piece of steel wool. Cover both ends of the exhaust pipe. If your motorcycle has dual exhaust, plug both of the mufflers. If it only has a two into one with a single outlet, make sure you close up that one outlet. It's not that they're enticed by something edible, it's that they're enticed by the closed area to live in. They'll bring all kinds of debris, from straw, to pieces of fabric, to acorns to eat throughout the winter. And they'll actually live in your muffler. They may not cause a lot of damage, but it's pretty messy when you go to start up that motorcycle for the first time in the spring, and somebody has been living in there, chances are the mouse won't still be in there, but all the remnants of the winter when he lived in your muffler, will be, and it's awful smelling. Another word to the wise. Don't leave your tires in contact with concrete, for a long duration. Don't leave them under inflated or overinflated. You need to make yourself a good thorough checklist. Everything that you've done for storage, when you did it, make sure you date it when you did it, make sure you date it when you took your first ride. Again, we've ridden on Christmas. I brought the bike back full of salt, washed it off, dried it off good, put a clean sheet back over it. Unhook the negative, took the battery back in the house to warm storage. And I myself was ready to ride when the spring came or during the spring thaw. If the snow melts enough the roads are dry, we're riding. Again, It's not deep space. Don't package your motorcycle as if you're never gonna ride it again. You're gonna catch a beautiful day in the middle of the winter. You're gonna want to take a ride. If your cylinders are filled with fogging oil, if you pulled your spark plugs out and done some crazy procedure to it, that it's gonna take you an hour to prep your bike to ride. That's not the way things should be stored. You should look forward. You should definitely take the time and plan your storage. Make sure if you're gonna ride the bike three weeks from now that you don't make it inaccessible, you don't push it into a downstairs room, through a 32 inch walkway and then have to struggle to get it out when the weather's nice.