Winter again

Okay, so I've been talked out of trying to store my bike outside this winter. I guess I'm just too used to Seattle, where the temp rarely goes much below 40. In any case, I was hoping someone could give me a little further advice. I need to put gas stabilizer in the tank, I assume, but does the brand matter? Should I pull the battery and keep it on a battery tender? If so, is there a decent battery tender I can buy that isn't too expensive. Other than that, I assume I just throw it up on the center stand and kiss her good night?

Thanks.

 

The marine Stabil is what I have used for years and had no problems with. Apparantly the marine type works better at preventing ethanol gelling. Battery wise I take it out and top up the charge every month or month and a half.

 

Battery Tender is a brand name and is very affordable and works well, STA-BIL is a commonly found stabilizer that works well enough.

 

Sta-bil definitely. As far as the battery goes, if it is a gel-type it takes a different one than standard sealed batteries. If it is a normal one, I used to just charge it up good outside of the bike, then put it somewhere warm - but NOT on a concrete floor. That is certain death. Then just charge it once again before putting it back in. Battery lasted me 8 years by doing that.

 

I would recomend that you don't store it with old acidic oil in the crankcase. Do an oil and filter change before you put the cover on. I also spray her down with WD40 to act as a light protectant on exposed metal surfaces. It washes off easy in the spring and is somewhat of a ritual to "bringing it to life" when the roads are dry and safe to navigate again. I pull the battery and store it inside for the winter with occasional attention from the battery tender to make sure it stays healthy. I may be getting carried away but we usually see some -30 days in January so even in the garage it get quite unplesant.

 

-30....is that an age group? If your area gets to and remains well below freezing, get that battery our of that environment. And keep it charged. A fully charged battery, if it is in reasonable shape, should never freeze. Once it does freeze that, it is fct. As far as storing on the concrete floor, that concern diminished many years ago with inprovements to the casing around the battery....or so I am told.

I haven't had any experiences with Stabil or the likes in my bike. But then, until this year, mine was ridden at least once a week, if not every day. It was parked if we had prolonged snow on the ground. But I don't put anything in my power mower or pressure washer and don't have any problems with either of those. Both Honda engines BTW. The old mower had a Tecumseh engine that wasn't worth a shit any day of the year. But definately needed the stabil for over the winter storage. For what thst costs you, you might as well sleep better by putting some in the tank.

There has been a lot of talk recently about applying some sort of rust preventitive on your bike. WD40 seems to pop up often. I am reading more often that it is not a good rust inhibitor. That is not an opinion, just something I am reading more often lately. Here again, other than chain lube on the chain as "normal" I don't do anything. I suppose up to now, I rode it often enough, that the rain and road splash, kept my bike rust free, but dirty most the winter.

 

Sea-Foam is the other stabilizer.

 

If you know your not going to run the bike for a few months Honda typically recommends removing spark plugs & adding a tablespoon of oil to the cylinders. Turn the engine over a few times to distribute the oil on the cylinder walls & reinstall plugs. Helps prevent cylinder walls from rusting.

 

When you put the MARINE StaBil in your gas tank, make sure its full to the very top and then run it for about five minutes to get the treated fuel distributed throughout the fuel system. After you burn through the old fuel in the spring, put a couple of ounces of Redline SL1 fuel system cleaner in the first fresh tank and you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Aren't the spark plugs a pain to get to? This seems a little extreme. I'd rather make the trip to the bike and start it once a month (which I'll probably do anyway - bike isn't being stored near me though).

 

When my family owned a dealership, we offered a service where we would store the customers machines for the winter. We usually had about thirty bikes each winter to take care of so it took a bit of work. For each machine, we would do as you suggest, pulling the plugs, oiling the cylinders, pulling batteries, fuel stabilizer etc. The bikes sat for about five months in a dry but not heated (cold) storage building so the efforts we invested were comensurate with the conditions that the bikes were exposed to.

Things are different today for a number of reasons probably most importantly the design of the bikes themselves, the engine tollerances, fuel systems and the ease of access to the vital components. The bikes we stored were of 70s vintage so access to the plugs was relatively easy and they all had carbs so we just shut off the fuel and drained them with a bit of stabil in the tanks. Today, you can't get to the damn plugs without a huge effort and there is no draining float bowls. Then there is the environmental component to consider.

All thsi to say, if the bike is indoors, in a heated area, I would just do as you suggest and cranke her up once a month. It will be fine.