Hello all, Just a question for anyone who stores their bike for the cold winter months. Aside from pulling the battery out, do you guys do anything special to your bikes? I have a torpedo heater in my garage thats on when I'm out there working on the bike, but otherwise it's pretty cold out there. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

Don't pull your battery, just get a battery tender and let it be! change your oils before you let it sit all winter so the contaminants don't settle on the bottom of the tanks. and don't start it up periodically unless you let it get up to normal temp. if you start it up for a few minutes and shut it off right away, you get condensation in the engine oil.

 

I agree, use a battery tender, change all oils and top up your fuel tank and add fuel stabilizer.

 

....doesn't sound like something that I would want to do!

 

Any truth to pulling the plugs and pouring a small amount of oil, replacing plugs and then letting it sit? I've heard this called fogging the heads? Or something? Easier on the engine when we do get the occassional day of 50 degrees in December and you wanna ride....

 

You only need to put fogging oil or oil in a 2 stroke motor, there is no need to do that on a 4 stroke engine...
We winterize around 400 motors in the fall,2 stokes get fogged,fuel stabilizer in tank and the 4 strokes get oil change,fuel stabilizer in tank..
I park all 3 of my bikes in cold storage(garage and it gets down to -30 the only thing I do is fill tank add full throttle stabalizer and hook up the battery tenders on them,come fall I twist the wick a few times turn the key,hit the starter button and bam off and running...I change my oil in the spring after running them for a 5-10 mn..but hay thats just me.

 

Cool, That sounds like what I'll be doing....man winter sucks, especially the first year you get your bike. damnit..... I keep riding until I see snow though..

 

Why wouldn't you fog cylinders in a 4 stroke? Can you explain? I fog everything; muffs, cylinders & gas tank after filling as full as possible.

 

2stroke the oil gets mixed with the fuel for lubracation so when its not run the cyld dry out causing rust corrotion thus the rings can stick or seize up where as a 4 stroke the oil lubes the cyl's and the oil pump lubs the rest, i.e oil bath from the bottom up like a car,tractor thus keeping every thing lubed...Fogging keeps the cyl,rings lubed so you dont dry start it causing the ring to break.
Thats why a 4 stroke can sit for yrs and run fine were a 2stroke you can run into trouble after letting it sit without running it for a long time....
It wont hurt if you want to spray fogging oil thru the air intake on a 4stoke untill the motor starts smokeing then shutting it down wich is the best way to fog a motor but its not nessasary.

 

So...How much oil do you typically add to the heads?