Winterizing Your Motorcycle

When the snow falls, it’s time to put your bike in the garage for a few months. However, if you don’t perform the proper maintenance before parking your bike in the garage, the results can be bad. A motorcycle that sits for an extended period of time can develop some problems that could prevent you from riding when the weather warms up. Here are a few things to do before you park your motorcycle for the winter.

Give It a Good Cleaning

All of the riding you do during the warmer months of the year lead to all kinds of dirt and grime clinging to your bike. Get all that stuff off. Even if you wash your bike regularly, you need to take the time and get into all of those tough-to-reach areas.

What to Do with the Gas Tank

One of the most important things to do when you winterize your bike is to deal with the gas tank. If you leave some gas in the tank for a long period of time, the inside of your gas tank will rust, and that rust can then get into vital engine parts. There are two ways to deal with this problem: you can either fill the gas tank up as full as it can go and then add a fuel stabilizer to the gas, or you can drain all of the fuel out of the gas tank and let it dry out.

Drain Carburetor Float Bowls

If your bike has carburetors, you need to shut off the fuel petcock and drain the gas out of the carburetor bowls. Your owner’s manual will usually have instructions on how to do this.

Put Oil on the Front Forks

Before you put your bike away for a long time you need to rub or squirt oil on the front forks. Once the oil is on there, sit on the bike and bounce up and down to ensure that the oil makes contact with all of the rubber seals so they don’t dry out.

Put Oil in the Cylinders

The easiest way to do this is to disconnect the spark plug wires and unscrew the spark plugs. Once the spark plugs have been removed, squirt some oil into the cylinders. It’s usually a good idea to spin the motor with the starter so that the oil you added will coat the whole cylinder. Don’t add too much oil; try to put about a teaspoon in each cylinder.

Battery Maintenance

If you don’t want to buy a new battery every springm then you may want to consider removing the battery, cleaning the area for the battery, and greasing the connectors. Once the battery is clean and the connectors have a little grease on themm you can put the battery back in the bike and attach a smart charger. The smart charger will maintain the charge of your battery while your bike sits for the winter.

Posted in Engine, Lifestyle, Maintenance, Oil Change and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , .