Motorcycle storage for winter is a sensitive topic in my household.
As the weather starts getting colder my friends and family start to talk in hushed tones around me... random pats on the back occur... my wife whispers "it'll be alright" in my ear... All signaling that they know my mood is getting worse because as winter weather arrives, my riding time will slowly decrease, until it stops completely when the ice hits.
Then, I will have to carefully prep my motorcycle for winter storage and put into its corner in the garage for the next month or so. All of this makes me a very, very grumpy person.
As painful as winterizing my motorcycle may be, there are four key things I do every season that has kept my motorcycle in top shape and starting first time every time I pull it out of storage.
There are many more things that you can do to store a motorcycle that can take hours to do. But, my goal is to share main things required to store a motorcycle that have worked for me and taken the least amount of time.
Let's face it; getting a motorcycle ready for storage isn't fun. But, it is necessary. So the simpler and faster the steps are the more likely you will be to do something.
So, let's get to it. Here are four easy steps to get your motorcycle ready for storage over the winter - no matter if "winter" for your motorcycle is 3 weeks or 3 months.
madshouse says:
Good stuff...Thanks! I live in MN so I will be doing the "winterizing" thing soon.
Sun Sep 14, 2014 at 5:22 AM
LasVegasMotorCycleStorage says:
Why not ride all winter? Store a bike in Las Vegas. Get cheap airfare and ride all winter. Call and I'll pick you up at the airport. http://lasvegasmotorcyclestorage.vpweb.com
Tue Sep 17, 2013 at 7:26 PM
ChaoticMotorsports says:
I am lucky living in Houston we really do not have much winter but I have had an issue with one of my bikes after it sat for about two months. It did not want to run right and was sputtering. Finally I broke down and took it to a local shop and they had to tune it and now its fine. I remember with carburetors you had to drain the bowls and all that is something like that necessary with fuel injected bikes?
Tue Apr 3, 2012 at 1:01 PM
OpenRoadRider says:
@megaman76 - we do this as part of a regular checkup. It's more important for safety of riding than protecting the bike. Air pressure decreases in tires in cold temperatures. So technically, if you filled your tires to maximum pressure in the cold, when the weather warmed up you might have too much pressure in your tires!! So, we don't worry about it too much for the shorter periods of storage (a few months)
Thu Jan 5, 2012 at 7:21 AM
megaman76 says:
DON'T YOU HAVE TO INFLATE YOUR TIRES TO THE MAXIMUM AIR PRESSURE.
Fri Dec 30, 2011 at 6:23 PM
michaelpadway says:
Definitely time to get the bike ready for the winter. Luckily being in San Francisco and not in Wisconsin anymore means that I don't have to worry about this stuff anymore. :)
Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 7:44 AM