FMH LIVE: Storage

Hi, I'm Bob LaRosa. Welcome to another Fix My Hog event. Here in this part of the country in New England the end of the riding season's upon us. And when I say it's the end of the riding season, the weather's very unpredictable. I can surely remember riding Thanksgiving, Christmas, new year's, and well into the early spring here in New England.

The whole topic of this event is gonna be about storage. I don't like to bill it as winter storage 'cause to me, winter is an Alaska winter. Six months of darkness, six months of light. Here in New England we do get different down seasons, let's call it a downtime. I was recently out in Colorado, they had six inches of snow one day and we were riding the next.

So when it comes to downtime or storage there's a lot of variables. And I just wanna take a few moments and address the more important aspects of storage, correct storage so to say, of your motorcycle. Much like most of the Fix My Hog videos and what I've tried to address over the years, this is not the end all mean all, but it is something that should light the fire and make you wanna do a little bit more research and store your motorcycle correctly. When it comes to storage, I myself have had motorcycles throughout the years with limited indoor storage, so I've been forced to leave them outside during the New England winter. That is entirely different than storing a motorcycle in the garage in the corner for a couple of weeks, couple months.

What I wanna address here is how to make sure the motorcycle stays in proper running condition and in pristine condition anytime it's not ridden for an extended period of time. And that extended period to me is anything more than 30 days. All right, anything more than a week that that motorcycle is not started and ridden, I would highly recommend keeping a battery maintainer on it. And I used the word maintainer because a battery charger can possibly overcharge a battery when it's used too much. Nowadays with the electronic technology that's available, battery tenders, battery maintainers, they work perfect.

They'll not only keep the battery perfectly charged, but they will extend the life of the motorcycle battery. Sorry again, it's unpredictable weather here in New England. We've been getting power spikes, lights have been going on and off. Anyways, right back to storage. When it comes to siting the motorcycle itself in a stationary position, I highly recommend, if it's indoors on concrete, to use a piece of plywood or an old piece of carpet, an old throw rug, to put the motorcycle on.

That way there you're keeping the dampness from the concrete from permeating the tires or the frame or any of the mechanical, metal, rubber, electrical components of the motorcycle. It's just a little fail safe. If you're one of those people who feel you can just put the bike up for the downtime or the winter storage and throw a sheet over it and it's gonna be ready to ride in the spring, you may be in for some nasty surprises. And the reason for this is because you're not using the motorcycle as much as you were during the height of the riding season regardless of where you are in the country. I can assure you the California folk, and I was out there not too long ago, beautiful weather.

There are days that are too hot to ride, much like there's days on the east coast that it's too cold to ride. The important thing is to make sure the motorcycle is serviced and stored correctly when it's in its downtime period. I want to jump into fuel tanks, the fuel system, fuel in general. Nowadays fuels aren't what they used to be, unless of course you were born in the year 2000. Fuels are mixed with a grain ethanol mix.

Up here on the east coast we use a 10 to 12% mixture. Very high in octane, don't be fooled, but it does absorb moisture. Now, there's two schools of thought when it comes to storing a motorcycle. Do I drain the tank, drain the fuel system, or do I leave the tank full and leave the fuel system full? If you've got a fuel injected motorcycle I highly recommend full tank of fuel, run it, add stabilizer any time.

Any internal combustion engine, and I don't care if it's your lawnmower, if it's gonna sit more than 30 days you need to put some type of fuel stabilizer in the gasoline. And it's a light mixture. It's usually an ounce or two per gallon. And the reason for this is when fuel is... All you really need to know is when it sits and it's exposed to oxygen, and like anything else, if you've got a small amount in a big atmosphere it has a great effect.

When it's in the fuel tanks at the gas station, thousands of gallons, oxygen has a minimal effect. But when you're dealing with a couple of gallons, you wanna make sure that fuel tank is full. You don't wanna leave that air gap. The air gap allows excess oxygen to get into the fuel and actually diminish the octane rating. That's why stabilizer of any brand, they all work very well.

I'm not gonna promote any single type. They all work great in their proper quantity per gallon. It's very important on any fuel that's gonna sit for more than 30 days. All right, if your bike's gonna be down for more than a month, it's very important to add the stabilizer. I myself, with the four bikes, I am told to share, we typically fill the tank full.

Less air gap, less chance of oxygen diminishing the fuel value so to say. And what I typically do, first bikes that we're gonna ride in the spring, the beginning of the riding season, I siphon that fuel out and I put it in, obviously, in a good container and I use it for the lawnmower, the chainsaw, and then start the season with a fresh tank of fuel. And a lot of people say, "Well, jeez, why don't you just drain the tank?" Problem with draining a fuel tank, especially with today's fuels, they're very aggressive. And any of us that know running carborated bikes, throughout the years as the fuels changed, the fuels became aggressive to the rubber seals, especially the needle and seat, which controls how much fuel is in the float bowl. That is the other school of thought, the other train of thought, that drain the tank, drain the fuel system.

Problem is, an empty tank creates condensation, condensation creates rust and flaking within the fuel tank. And yes you can and they do offer, they do manufacture and make fogging oil that you can fog the fuel tank with. I, myself, again not being a six month of darkness winter guy, recommend not draining the fuel system, just keeping a full tank of fuel, stabilizer. That's the way to go. Very rarely, I've got friends in Minnesota that their bikes are down a good four months.

They add this stabilizer. Stabilizer typically keeps fuel good for year. They add the stabilizer, they treat the bike properly and they're ready to ride once the weather allows. And again, it's all dictated by the weather. We've ridden here in New England, Christmas day.

And then there's years you couldn't shovel your way out Christmas day. Important thing is to keep the tires to full pressure and try to keep them off the ground. But I don't want you to take the bike and jack it up five feet in the air where all the weight of the suspension. Now, there's two trains of thought or two ways suspension works. Sprung, which is the weight of the motorcycle on it, and unsprung, which is the weight of just the wheels on the suspension.

Much like when you jump a speed bump. You go from sprung weight to unsprung weight quickly. What I'd like to see you do, what I like to do myself when I have the chance, is just get a light lift on the bike to where the tires are barely touching the ground and leave it that way. Reason for that is it still allows a little sprung pressure on the suspension. I don't like to leave hydraulic forks fully extended, or spring style rear shocks fully extended for a long duration.

But then again, I don't like to leave the weight of the bike sitting on the tire. And bias belted tires, and you're certainly welcome to looking at any of the Fix My Hog videos on tires, bias belted tires can develop flat spots. And the flat spot I've seen them develop in a week from the wrong storage conditions to no flat spot at all after four or five months. But again, it's dependent on the conditions you're in, the environment you're in. Indoor, outdoor, big, big difference.

And now I've had people with indoor garages park their brand new bike against the back concrete wall and think to themselves, "I'm safe for the winter." It's a garage, controlled temperature. It's basically the temperature of the house, but yet they don't take into account that every night they open the garage door to pull the car in, they pull in an ice cold vehicle, they let in a rush of cold air that floods a room temperature environment and then settles to the ground. When it comes to storage you've got to bear in mind, condensation, which is created by temperature change, is the utmost enemy. Now, condensation, I'm gonna, again, Bob LaRosa famous, jump right off the first exit ramp. Condensation can be created in any type of vessel, the vessel being your garage, the vessel being your fuel tank, the vessel being your oil tank, the vessel being your transmission.

There is an open air gap in the top of your transmission where the shifter and all of that lie. It creates a cavity with an air gap. Anywhere there's an air gap and there's a temperature change, doesn't have to be drastic. All right, I've seen motorcycles stored with beautiful leather saddlebags, leather seats, in incorrect conditions and mold developed within a week. And this is not necessarily buried in snow.

Please bear in mind, this storage episode that I'm doing doesn't pertain to us people who are destined for snow and ice, but it can happen anywhere there's a drastic daytime, nighttime temperature change. I was out in Arizona, not so long ago, and I was amazed. We are riding in a hundred degree heat during the day and the night time temperature was 36. I woke up that morning with my arm through the spokes, that's a whole different story, and the motorcycle was covered in the morning dew, the condensation. If you allow that to happen to anything, I don't care if it's a toaster or an adjustable wrench, for an extended period of time the corrosion will have its way with the component.

Condensation is the enemy. All right, there are a number of ways to force the condensation not to have such an effect. There's a lot of lubricants, desiccant bags. I actually just recently sent a friend a box of 12 of the long desiccant bags 'cause unfortunately this year he's forced to store his bike outside for the entire winter in South Dakota. And what it's really gonna come down to is the bike is exposed to the environment.

That's all. What we're planning on doing is trying to give it the best seal we can and leave the desiccant bags under the bike to absorb the moisture so it doesn't affect the motorcycle itself. He plans on leaving it to sit for the entire winter. He's not one of those people that's gonna try to ride when and if the weather allows. His next ride's probably gonna be May, end of May, early June.

On that topic, just because the bike's sitting, the worst thing you can do in my opinion, and again please prove me wrong, is to start the bike once a week, rev it up, bring it to operating temperature and shut it down. And everybody will ask me, "But why? All it does is tell me the bikes ready to go." It really isn't, because what you're doing, you're diminishing the battery, the amperage output, and even if you allow the bike to run at high enough idol to replenish the battery from what what it took to start it in the cold, what you did was you allowed the oil to warm up, the transmission to warm up, the primary chain case compartment to warm up, the fuel to get in the fuel tank, to get affected by the heat given off of the engine. Again, all condensation related issues. And I don't want to dwell on that any longer.

I want you to do your homework, I want you to understand, heat creates moisture. Moisture, condensation creates corrosion. When it comes to storage best thing to do is, "That's it, I wrapped it up the best I could and I put it to sleep for the winter or for the duration that it's gonna be not ridden." You know, New England's winters come in hard, they come in soft. Throughout the country we all have our downtime. I have a bunch of friends in the military, God bless you, thank you for serving, that their motorcycles have a tendency when they do go to serve, to sit more often than not.

And these are motorcycles that I really, really stay in contact with the owners and make sure that they're stored correctly and that they're ready to ride when they return. Big, big topic is batteries. Any motorcycle that doesn't have all the modern day amenities, radios, GPS, alarm systems, anything else that's integrated that may cause or draw on the motorcycle, I highly recommend removing the battery from the motorcycle and storing it in a nice, warm, dry condition on a battery maintainer. And when I say maintainer, it has to have a storage mode. You can't just leave a battery, especially the older acid filled batteries with the vent tube.

If you leave those batteries in any condition, on a charger they will free gas, they will actually exhaust the acid in the battery out the vent tube and be dry and useless by the time the storage period has come to an end. Today most everything is AGM sealed batteries. It's really not an issue anymore, but I want to bring up that topic because storing an older motorcycle is just as important if not more so than storing a newer motorcycle. Newer bikes with the amenities, the alarm system, depending on where you store it, you have to keep the battery up to snuff so the alarm system works. Fuel injection, especially those of you that have modified them, I don't recommend on hooking the battery because there are voltage sensitive memories.

I've seen some of the generations of radios lose the memories for the radio preset if the batteries aren't hooked for an extended period of time. But if you've got an older, like my '95 Springer, don't be afraid at all. Take the battery right out of it. I take it out, I put it in the closet upstairs where it's room temperature year round. I leave a battery tender on it, in my closet, yes, and I leave the tender hooked up to the closet light.

So every time I'm in the closet, the battery gets a little burst of energy. And the same can apply if your bike's stored in the garage. Plug the tender into an outlet that's switched to your garage lighting. That way there every time you're all tinkering in the garage, the bike's getting a little replenishment of voltage. Never store a motorcycle on a battery that's not fully charged.

Never store a motorcycle unless it's properly fogged with an empty fuel tank. Never store a motorcycle with a carburetor with an empty float bowl. Reason for this is the float bowl when it's empty, the float is down, the rubber, the valve itself that allows the fuel to flow, is hanging out in the air and has a tendency to swell. And what'll happen when you turn your gas on in the spring or when you're ready to ride, the float bowl will overflow because the swelled seat on the needle isn't sealing correctly. Again, there's so many variables to proper storage.

I possibly couldn't cover them all, but I do want to give you a little insight. You know, I would rather a motorcycle with one wheel up in the air and move the jack or the lift to the front wheel every two or three weeks or once a month and then lift the front wheel off the ground. One wheel off the ground for a longterm storage is better than no wheels off the ground. Both wheels off the ground just the touch is the ideal situation. Piece of plywood instead of dirt if you're storing outside, instead of the concrete if you're storing inside is always beneficial.

I don't recommend any type of cover that's not breathable. I don't care if it's inside, outside, it's got to breathe. Don't put your bike in a plastic bag. Plastic bag creates its own environment. You'll get excessive condensation.

And I've seen motorcycles that you won't have any condensation damage except the first five or six inches from the ground up. And the reason for that is that's the condensation line. That's the line where the cold air settles and stays most often. I've seen cam covers, half wheels, exhaust systems become entirely rusted and corroded in a three or four month storage period. Again, it's your own responsibility to store your bike correctly, but it's not something, "Hey, it's winter.

I'm gonna go snowmobiling, I'm gonna go quading, nevermind the bike till the spring." The problem with that if you nevermind the bike till the spring, chances are you'll have trouble with the bike in the spring. So use common sense. Big, big issue I've seen throughout the years has been rodents, insects, any type of creature, indoors and out. I'm talking squirrels, mice, rats, raccoons, mud hornets. They love nice tight areas to make their homes out of.

All my bikes... They're not just mine, all our bikes. I take all the seats off, put all the seats in the same closet with the bike out of this Springer for the winter. Reason for that, two of our bikes have very expensive homemade seats, which I don't want any damage to occur too, but I don't want to leave any of the wildlife building material. First thing, mice and rats, and again, squirrels, raccoons, you name it, depends where you are in the country, in the world for that matter, a seat's made out of foam, excellent building material.

I've seen them build nests up under fuel tanks. I've seen him build nests on top of batteries. I've seen mice eat an entire 2014 fuel injected ultra wiring harness because they just happened to like that place. They chewed through it, made themselves a nice hole, took a bunch of the foam out of the seat, made themselves a nice warm home and then spent the winter there. The owner called me in the spring and said, "Bob, the bike won't start." "Is the battery charged?" "Yes, absolutely, I kept the tender on it all winter." Sure it's a hundred percent.

I said, "You really got to start looking around. You should take your seat off." He says, "Nah, I left it on." He's like, "I put the cover over it and plugged it in, thought I'd be good." Well, come to find out the mice got to it, caused a lot of damage. The insects that I've seen throughout the years, mud hornets, ants, and I'll tell you a very susceptible area is the cow bell style horn cover. I've just seen all kinds of things live in there. Granted it's not detrimental to the operation of the bike, but when you first start up the bike and go riding and hit the horn and blow a bunch of mud and dust out, you know something's been living there that wasn't there prior.

Another area you have to, especially if you're storing outside extended period, have to absolutely pay close attention to is the exhaust system. That long metal tunnel is perfect for a family of anything small in the rodent species. And I don't like to cover them with plastic bands and elastics, which a lot of people do. And it works well for them in their storage conditions. Problem with plastic, they chew through it, they're into where they want to be and they take the plastic as building material.

I highly recommend using steel wool. A lot of times I use brillo pads if a good steel wool is not available. Chances are the wildlife's not gonna wanna chew steel wool and build their den with a cold material. Seat foam, plastic, and don't forget anything else that's readily available. I've seen bikes stored outside where the mice have built a beautiful home in the ham can style Sportster air cleaner cover and the same with the semi oval twin cam cover with insulation out of the walls of the house.

They actually ran back and forth to the house because the house itself was too noisy. They didn't like to be disrupted, but the bike's sitting out back, whether it be behind the house, next to the deck, was a nice, safe, secure place. They would steal from Peter to pay Paul. And they built themselves a beautiful place to spend the winter. Much like any of us, any species on this planet, any warm place will do when the weather's cold.

Tires themselves. I've talked with many people, I've talked to a lot of tire manufacturers, talked to a lot of bike owners, not just Harley owners, throughout the years. Flat spots have always been a big issue when a motorcycle sits, I'm gonna use three months or more as a benchmark, and more with a biased belted tire than a radial. And a lot of us dresser guys are still running bias belted because they carry the load better than the radial. Radials store better with weight on them because of the construction of the tire, but if you're carrying a heavy load like us touring people, your bias belted tires will develop flat spots.

Now, it doesn't mean the tire's rendered useless. I've ridden minor flat spots back into shape come spring, and then I've had bikes that were stored so incorrectly that the flat spots were so severe you just couldn't get them to go back into shape, you had to replace them. It's really not something you wanna do. First thing in the spring is go put a brand new set of tires on, especially if you're not due for them, but it's something because of improper storage you just may have to do. I get into a lot of conversations about, "Should I change my oil before I put my bike away or should I change it in the spring?" If your bike's due for an oil change, change your oil.

I never put any of my bikes away with dirty or semi dirty oil. I always put them away with clean oil. Reason for that is an extended storage period, and now that's going to fall into 30 days or more. In a month, if a motorcycle's not started and ridden and the oil brought to proper temperature, all the dirty particulate matter settles in the oil tank, especially the soft tail style oil tank. It settles to the bottom of the tank right where the gravity feed, the outlet of the oil tank, feeds the oil pump.

Last thing I wanna do, and a couple of my bikes this year are probably gonna sit four months without being started or ridden. Even if the weather's decent, I've got a couple projects on here and they're gonna sit and not be messed with. The problem is you don't wanna suck all that dirty particulate matter in the oil first shot out of the barn when you start that engine threw the engine, threw the oil pump and into the engine. And granted, if you've always run clean oil the buildup is minimal, but don't take the chance. There's no difference in clean oil sitting in a container on a shelf or sitting in your oil tank.

Again, don't expose it to excessive condensation, which is created by starting the motorcycle, letting it come to temperature, at least you think, and shutting it off. As it cools condensation forms. What's the difference between California winter and Connecticut winter? Very drastic. Don't let...

Don't let cabin fever get the better of you. Don't go down and start the bike just cause you miss riding, rev it up and shut it down. You're creating more harm than good. Just leave it be. If you've got to spend some time with your bike, spend some time cleaning it.

Even if you put it away perfectly clean, and I highly recommend storing a motorcycle as if you were going to bring it to a bike show. Make sure it's fully waxed, fully cleaned, wash the hell out of it, dry the hell out of it if you're in an extremely cold climate and wax, wax, wax, and remove the wax. I still to this day have a bunch of friends put a big heavy coat of wax on the bike and leave it on there for the winter. It does no good. Wax when you put it on it closes up the pour of the paint, you remove it, you've got a barrier against the environment.

Everybody's train of thought is if I put it in heavy wax it gives me better protection from the environment. It doesn't. All it does is allow any dust and dirt in the air to settle in the wax and then you have a hard time removing dried wax and you grind that dirt into your paint into the clear coat. So put a good coat of wax on it, remove the wax, use a good breathable cover, and you really should be fine. WD 40, I love the product.

I don't overuse it, but I do like to use it, all the lower portions in a motorcycle. I use a nice microfiber towel, soak it with the WD, and wipe all the bottom of the frame, wipe the exhaust, wipe my chrome with it. But then again, even when my bikes are stored I still remove the covers. I roll them around. Maybe I can't get out of the garage door because it's buried in snow, but I'll roll them back and forth.

I'll throw another coat of wax on them. I'll clean the mirrors. I miss my bikes when I can't ride. I hope you do too, because that's an important part of storage. Unless it's very long-term, if you've been deployed in the military, or if, perfect example, if you're shipping your motorcycle, there are products out there, I'm not gonna use any brand names, that you can spray the motorcycle with and it's a corrosion inhibitor.

I'm gonna use one, I'm sorry, Cosmoline. Does anybody remember that? And yes, there's much better products now than the good old heavy military grade cosmoline, but nothing works like that for long term storage. Use what fits your length of your storage period. Use your brain, don't allow any damage.

And again, I've seen mold in a week on leather saddlebags. I've seen bikes sit out back on a piece of plywood for six months. Breathable cover, battery out on on the shelf in the house, walk out, dig themselves a path to the bike, but the roads were clean and dry, put the battery in, bike starts up, runs fine. I myself, and I'm gonna reiterate this, siphoning fuel out of the motorcycle or draining the fuel out of the motorcycle if it's been sitting more than three months is a great idea. Don't discard the fuel.

That fuel can definitely be re-used, lawn mowers, chainsaws, whatnot, and then put in a fresh tank of fuel and enjoy the riding season. I guess the big point of this here is when it comes to storage, winter storage, please don't turn a cold shoulder on your motorcycle and ruin the beginning of the riding season. Nothing more frustrating than the first beautiful spring day to ride and you've got click, click, click, click, click, click, the bike won't start. You go to start the bike and there's a funny smell, chances are that's some type of wildlife's nest either burning in the exhaust or just got sucked into the air cleaner. Protect all the openings on the bike any time the bike is gonna sit more than a month.

And don't forget to remove them. I've had people use duct tape over the bottom of the factory black plastic air box. Great idea, but make sure you remove it so the bike breaths properly when you go to ride after you're done storing it. I wanna take a minute and kick through my notes. Big thing to know, fuel exposed to oxygen.

It does diminish, it loses its volatility. Fuel stabilizer, very, very important. I think I talked about draining, storage, bias belted tires. Motorcycles built with air suspension. There was generations of bikes built with air suspended front hydraulic forks and air suspended rear shocks.

Make sure that those are to full operating pressure throughout the entire storage period. If your motorcycle has a tendency to leak a little bit of air, by all means, add it throughout the storage period. Make sure air suspension is kept fully pressurized. Don't let an air shock sit on an empty bladder for an extended period. Same goes with tires.

Any type of rubber tire that sits for an extended period of time with a temperature change, hot and cold, and again, that can occur even if the bike's in a heated garage and you open the garage door once a day to bring in your cold vehicle. That is a drastic temperature change. Tires will drop pressure. Make sure you keep them to proper... I myself when I of it and I keep it at maximum cold pressure, typically 40 pounds.

And it's a good way to monitor any type of leakage. Yes, it will change a little bit, but it shouldn't change drastically. Let's see what else. A big topic I get, whether it's the older evos or many of the twin cams that there have been changes, not only in cubic inch, but in engine design throughout the years is sumping. I put my bike away three or four months ago with a full tank of oil.

I check my oil before I went to start it up in the spring and the tank is empty. Reason for that, it's a gravity fed system, gravity overcame the check bowl in the oil pump and allowed the oil to drain from the oil tank, high point to the low point, which is the bottom of the crankcase. Do not under any circumstances add more oil. If you put the bike away with a full tank of oil, the oil's somewhere. If it didn't drip out or leak out on the floor, it certainly didn't burn 'cause you weren't riding it, the oils beneath the crankcase, or beneath the flywheel I should say, in the crankcase.

Start the motorcycle. Leave the dipstick off or crack the dipstick so you can see it with a flashlight and I'll guarantee you 10 out of 10 times you'll see the oil that's not in the tank start to return from the crankcase. It's called sumping and it happens. The early, early evos before they were top breather motors used to have just a vent at the bottom of the crankcase right to the environment. They would literally puke two or three quarts of oil onto the garage floor.

So again, before you go to start your bike after extended storage period times, check your oil level. If you put it away with a full tank, it didn't. If it's not visibly leaking out on the floor, it went somewhere. So start the bike and wait for it to return. Don't add more oil.

All it's gonna do is overcome the oil system, blow the dipstick out of the oil tank when it comes to temperature and just make a mess of the entire right side of the motorcycle. If you're using any type of lifting device, don't ever trust hydraulics for an extended period of time. Don't trust that they won't creep down and the bike wind up tipped over when it's not properly paid attention to. Anytime I use a hydraulic lift, make sure you block it, or use your true mechanical lift or jack. Never use milk crates, plastic milk rates.

The weight of the motorcycle will overcome the integrity of the plastic, the crate will collapse, the bike will tip over. Don't allow that to happen. If you're lucky enough, and I still have a bunch hanging around, metal milk rates work great. Jack the bike up, use the milk crate as a stationary object. I think I covered about everything I wanted to.

Again, storage, it's dictated by the length of time, it's dictated by the environment that you're going to store in. Use common sense. Don't allow the elements to diminish the value, the integrity, the appearance of your motorcycle because you're storing it for a month, six months, or a year. Use common sense, do your research. This point I'm gonna take a moment, gather my thoughts.

I've got a couple questions we're gonna answer and then we'll wrap up winter storage. Hopefully you don't have to leave your bike. And I don't want to leave my bike for any extended period of time, but if you do, I want you to do it correctly. Store correctly and you'll definitely reap the benefits come the first ride of the season. Tona, you've got questions?

Yeah, somebody said that if I need to pull the battery out for winter, lay up to triple charge it at another location due to power at the storage unit, should leave the ignition switch to auxiliary position or to on like when starting up the bike to run in position, or just leave it in straight off position. Anytime you store a motorcycle, whether the battery's in it with a battery tender or maintainer plugged in, or the battery's out of it with the battery maintainer or tender plugged on, make sure the ignition switch is off. And again, if you've got a newer model with electrical amenities, alarm systems, memory for the radio, possible fuel control modules that the memory, the voltage sensitive memory can be erased when it doesn't sense voltage for an extended period of time, leave the battery hooked up. If you've got an older model like this '95 Springer or Tona's 2001 fat boy carborated, there is no GPS, no radio, no drains on the battery. Take the battery out of the bike.

Good, it's a multi-purpose reason. One, the battery's in a nice, safe, warm, stored position. Two, it eliminates the need, the cabin fever need, to go start the bike. Or even as I catch Tona doing now and again after a week of not being able to ride, just turning the headlight on, beeping the horn, don't diminish the battery voltage and amperage during a storage condition. Right, so this says, "I went on a trip last summer and had to run ethanol a few times.

Now my soft tail has a knock. What might it be?" I really, really didn't want to dive into fuels. I am so disappointed in today's fuels compared to what I had available to me in my youth. Fuels, I can remember led based fuels, I'm not even getting into that. Fuels nowadays you absolutely can't run the E85s in motorcycles.

You just can't. But most fuels today are a 10 or 12% mixture of ethanol. If your bike developed the knock just from running that, in all honesty I wanna say there was an underlying condition that going from a non ethanol based fuel, which is very hard to find, to an ethanol based fuel might've just brought it to the surface. Might've caused it to rear its ugly head. I would certainly get the bike checked and look into a possible sensor condition.

You might have a sensor that was right on the edge of failing. And then the ethanol fuel might've just fueled the fire and caused the sensor to fail completely. Typically with the new modern electronic ignitions they are ion sensitive, ion detecting. Once an engine wants to knock, or ping, or pre-ignite, or detonate, I'm gonna throw that all into one big pool, anytime an engine doesn't want to run correctly it will self correct. It'll self adjust.

So I want to say, honestly, you had a sensor condition that was on-coming that the drastic change in fuel just brought on quicker. You know, best way to do if it's a newer bike is to go get it plugged in, whether it's in an independent repair facility or your local dealer, plug it in, have it scanned, and see what memory, including historic memory, has to show. Next question, Tona. Peter says, "I always add Stable, a brand named Stable, to my fuel tank. Drain my engine, turn off the gas valve until the carb runs dry and then drain my float.

In Northern Wisconsin it may be six months between riding seasons. Is this not good? Why no fogging oil?" Again, I've got friends in Minnesota and I think you're up against the same wall, Peter, when it comes to winter in Minnesota. I don't... I love the fuel stabilizer.

Any fuel that's gonna sit more than 30 days has to be stabilized. Even if the tank is full, you still got a little bit of air gap, fuel does diminish more quick now than it used to, stabilizer's a must. I don't like to drain the float bowl, again for the simple reason that float hangs out into the cold air that's in the compartment. Again, it's a compartment, your float bowl. If it's empty, condensation.

You don't wanna allow that to develop with the float bowl hanging fully down and you don't wanna let that needle and seat, the rubber, vital rubber I believe it's called, let that rubber expand because it may swell, it may not, but it may swell and cause the carburetor overflow when you go to start it up in the spring. Fuel stabilizer's a must, 30 days or more. When it comes to fogging, if that bike's gonna be down six months I would say yes to fog the engine, but no to run the fuel system dry. And what I'm talking about, you can fog the engine right to the air box or the inlet of the carburetor. And what that is it introduces a very rich blend of correctly formulated oil that's gonna coat the entire throttle body or carburetor body, your valves, your pistons, cylinders, rings to keep any corrosion or rust from forming.

And an important part, it's gonna lay a little bit of oil down the exhaust pipe and keep corrosion from forming in the exhaust port and the leading edge of the exhaust system. Fogging oil does have its place. Here in new England I very rarely fog the bikes because if I get a chance and it's 40 out, I'm gonna do a little bit of riding. But unfortunately, some of the climate in the United States, throughout the world, you do have a six month downtime. Fogging is a viable option for correct storage, but in some cases it may not be necessary.

But I very rarely drain the entire fuel system. Any other questions, Tona? Yes, so when we put the battery tenders on our bikes, how do you do it? All of our motorcycles, and we do have multiple motorcycles. Is that on the...

I don't have one on this particular bike. All of our motorcycles, although I can... All of our motorcycles have the same what they call a pig tail or charger, battery tender, battery maintainer pigtail hooked directly to the positive fused in the negative battery. And they all use the same connector. I use one charger for all of our motorcycles.

And what we do is we basically rotate the one charger between the multiple motorcycles. It plugs into them all the same connection and we keep all the batteries maintained. Again, if I'm expecting a mild winter, I'm not taking the battery out of the bike. One of my bikes this year will spend the duration of the down season outdoors. I will remove the battery, I will remove the seat, I'll seal up the exhaust and the air box so nothing can get into it, I'm gonna put a breathable cover on it and that bike's gonna be ready to ride in the spring.

The fuel, I'll use some stabilizer, I'll drain the fuel, siphon or I'll drain it out of the fuel valve, use that fuel for something else, put fresh fuel in and it's gonna be perfectly fine in the spring. Again, I can't stress enough, use the best knowledge you have for the storage conditions that your motorcycle's gonna experience. I'm Bob LaRosa for Fix My Hog. Please join us on Facebook, Instagram. Don't forget the newsletter, it's free.

It's chock full of info at what's happening with the Fix My Hog website. And I hope you have a very nice safe storage season, a great safe holiday season. And the riding season that's is in front of us is the best we've had yet. Have a great night. Thank you.

I'm Bob LaRosa, Fix My Hog.