Gah!

I just had a discussion with my brother, we both have new Harleys, mine is from september and his is from august.

Its getting cold here, we still have up to 12°C during the day and down below freezing at night.

He is putting his into storage with a harley dealer that keeps bikes over the winter. I want to ride mine until it either snows or the streets ice over.

Now he is determined that mine Harley will start to rust if I keep it outside (no garage but a tarp) and that it may even get damaged.

I say its a Harley not a toy, if it can't stand a little cold its not worthy of being ridden!

I mean really, maybe he is right but I am not going to mollycoddle my bike! Its a Harley, to me that name means tough!

I can't imagine that the Hells Angels put their bikes up for storage over the winter or all have heated garages.

 

Brother is right. Ya ain't got a garage - the bike will rust. Now if the rust don't bother you - fine, but if it does bother you, you're gonna be an unhappy camper come spring.

 

i have no idea of the weather conditions in fall and winter in your area of germany but if your brother wants a bike to look at he should keep it in the garage if you want to ride then ride the damn thing and worry about the other stuff later it not a trophy its a vehicle.
Mazz

 

My motorcycles always sleep inside when possible. My motorcycles will sleep inside before my girlfriend. I don't have to worry about storage usually because winter is not that long. A couple of weeks where I don't ride and maybe a week where I wouldn't ride.

 

You have to also make sure you run the engine long enough to burn out any moisture that gets in the crank case when the temp drops below 32 degrees or you're going to damage the engine. It's in the owner's manual also.

 

Fe2O3.nH2O

That's the formula for rust. It works the same for anything that contains steel and carbon alloys. There's no magic ingredient that HD uses that makes it any tougher than anybody else's steel and carbon alloy. Other parts will suffer as well. If you like to replace fork seals, gaskets, bearings, cables, and oxidized aluminum parts, leave it outside 24-7. My screen name stands for Rode Hard, Put Away Wet. My 30+ year-old Shovelhead knows me better than that.

 

its ur bike ride it as long as you want.

but if it were my bike, id be storeing it somewhere out of the snow/rain/and road salt. the cold is not going to hurt it as much as salt and/or water is going to. i usually dont like to ride in the spring untill we've had a few good rain showers to wash all/most of salt off the roads.

 

Nothing wrong with keeping it outside but I would make sure that you use a tarp that will keep the water out but will also breathe as not to trap any moisture on the inside

 

Stored my Sporty in a (uninsulated) garage covered by the $80 H-D cover bought from the dealership. "Breatheable material," etcetc.

Took off the cover after a month or two of temps and humidity constantly rising above and dropping below freezing point... and entire bike was already starting to cover in rust.

This winter, I'll be keeping the bikes in the garage, uncovered, with an electric fan blowing on them 24/7. It doesn't cost much electric to keep a cheap rotary fan motor operating, and it is worth it to not re-detail the rust off the bike again.

 

My only concern would be transparent black ice on the road and the corrosive effects of salt, if it's used on your roads.