Never been one to do all the oil changing until it is around the maint schedule. They don't sit long enough down here for the alkaline in the oil to hurt anything. No different than sitting all summer now is it? I ride mine when I can. Road today. Colder than a well diggers butt coming in this morning and yesterday morning. Nice going home though. I am less than 500 miles from my 5K service. I will do that over the winter in the shop and ride when I can.

 

Never ride a Harley below 45 degrees F.

The already loose tolerances will become even greater because of metal shrinkage and the bike could fall apart resulting in serious injury or death.

 

I always chuckle when I see the southern riders comment on how cold it is or was. LOL If it is clear roads and going to stay above freezing....i am riding.

 

Northern winter bikers



Southern winter bikers

 

The short rides are the only thing that will generate enough moisture to do any harm. 30 minute plus rides do the job to get oil nice and hot. 2 hour rides are even better right?

 

if your machine is an investment & you're worried about the re-sale of your vehicle, don't do it... the salt will be a bitch to clean off. If your machine is a vehicle to be ridden & you plan on keeping it... what's a little rust? I put my bike away last Dec 3rd & pulled it out Feb 15th... aside from a little rust I had to wipe off, no problems.

 

Huh what?

Your kidding right?

I do get shrinkage occasionally when I get a chill in my crotch though.

 

yes, it will explode

 

I'm not ready to hang it up for the season yet! Once weather (snow/ice) hits I will add the Stabil, push it to the back of the garage and plug in the tender, but, if a nice day pops up here or there I will unplug it, start it up and ride! Unless you live in north pole type conditions, I never did see the sense in an "absolute" winter storage. I shake my head in wonder at all the bikers that PAY the dealer to winter prep and store their bikes. To many nice days/weeks in between to wish you had it back to ride.

Just my worth!

 

Okay, something doesn't make any sense to me. I'm no mechanic, and it's been a very long time since I had a Harley.

But seems to me that, if you change the oil on your bike, push it into the garage to store it, the only place the fresh oil is at is in the oil tank. It's not circulating thru the engine. And it's certainly not going to coat the internals with the fresh oil. And there will be some old oil still up in the internals, if nothing more than a coating. So what good does it do to change it? And what harm could come from riding the bike with it changed or not?

Now if I was gonna store it for many years, I'd probably flush it, put in fresh oil, run it long enough to coat the internals, then shut it off and dangle it from the roof on wires.