Have seen at least 3 posts on this subject. Appears to be new to some, old hat for others. Many good ?'s and many good answers. Been wrenching since the 60's up here in COLD country, has always been a problem, can't change Mother Nature. Try to cover it all here, one more time.
A) Any cold surface exposed to warm air will cause condesation, inside the tank or outside the tank. (Walk into the house with cold glasses on)
B) All tanks, this includes gas, oil, primary, tranny, frame, handlebars(yes!), and engineare vented to atmospheric. (They have air in them.)
C) If you suffer condensation and warm the bike up to dry the external parts, ie, heat up the garage, push it outside, that will solve your visual h2o. There is still h2o in your gas tank, tranny, oil tank and primary.
D)If you run the bike to warm it up, run it long enough to heat all fluids up to evaporate ALL the h2o, primary is usually the last toheat up. If you run it for a short time, instead of evaporating the h2o, you'll mix or blend it together creating a milky slime, not a good thing.
E) To prevent h2o in the gas tank, keep it full, no air, no condensation. I have had bikes come in, won't start or run for sheot, h2o in the gas from storing.
F) Keep the bike in the living room or keep the garage heated if you can $$$$ it.
G) For some of you, this is a once or twice in a winter thing. Not a big deal, get on it and ride it for an hour or so, weather permitting.(We sent that cool snap your way, just to be able to have a new post to occupy our winter duldrums) For others, this can be an every nite phenomena, especially in northern climates during season changes.Can become a big deal. BTW- if you are fortunate to have a heated garage, and push the bike outside to work on the car/truck/etc, and it is cold, thesame thing happens INSIDE the tanks.
If I forgot or missed something, or am f***ed up some where, please jump my poop. I am still learning, too.
And Momma says "N JOY the RIDE"

I'm GUMBYDammit

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I have access to a heated garage for winter storage but early in the season with major temperature changes between night and day I find that a simple solution is using a fan to move the air.

 

It will always be new to some. Education of the herd, as it were.

 

Yes there have been several posts about this. A couple I saw had to do with the bike being covered. I can tell you from first hand experience that it doesn't have to be covered. Covering doesn't help the situation at all, that's for sure. Right after I got my bike, I got a nice HD brand cover. It only took me a couple of times uncovering it only to find the bike "sweating" to realize I can't store it covered. So, the cover is back in the carrying case for when I need to park it and leave it outdoors for any period of time - which is not very often.

I keep my bike in my shop which is not temperature controlled and it has a bare concrete floor. Anytime there is an extreme temperature change I get condensation on the floor and all over (and I assume inside) the bike. I have no idea if it helps with the internals but, for external condensation, I keep 2 small fans, 1 on each side of the bike blowing slightly upwards from the front towards the back. Low speed seems to work just fine. I'm thinking of getting one of those "Mr. Heater Buddy" propane portable indoor heaters to keep in the shop. The larger model has the ability to be hooked to a larger propane tank and will run on low for a good long time on a tank.

 

Nice bike...where have I seen it before??

 

More good info indeed. I've now read suggestion from lightbulbs underneath to charcoal on the seat. I don't worry so much about the outside as I do the inside. And this year it's been a sloppy winter,I haven't been able to get out.Even today, it's a balmy 60 but raining like hell.[:@]Last night we had tornado warnings.

 

I've heard charcoal will help but I don't know. There are also products made and sold in boating stores to absorb moisture when a boat is covered. I assume those would help as well. I just prefer to keep the cover off and use the fans. Especially since we get good riding days now and then all year around and I don't want it bundled up too much. I'd stay away from bulbs under the cover although I've heard people doing it.

 

You dont want to use propane heat in there. Propane is a very moist heat and will ADD to the humidity problem. I used to heat with it and after just 1 day, you can see the moisture on everything!

bob

 

There is an item called "Goldenrod" that gun owners use in gun safes to keep out moisture. It is a low heat device, just enough to keep the air dry so nothing will rust. Just might pay to check it out.

 

A lot of these instances are related to 'bare concrete'. Floor mats, the type you see at retails stores have a rubberized backing, and will keep the concrete from passing some of the moisture up to your bike. I use an old carpet that is sacrificial with plastic taped to the concrete for the CFO's trike. I had read in a post some time ago that WalMart had been selling a walkoff mat in their Auto department for a resonable price (compared to water intrusion).

Stopping the moisture from older uninsulated concrete floors is a good first step.

It's visible in front of the 96 on the jack and the second image shows it with the rain outside.

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