When I bought my first HD I went to the dealers winterizing seminar. It wasn't
really much of a seminar, got to eat a donut and bull**** with the owner for a
while. Anyhow one thing that he said that stuck with me was "the water
condensation from one short run won't amount to anything that you'll notice
immediately... but it will put microscopic rust pits into bearings in the bottom
end... and it will be noticeable in whether you have a 50K mile or a 100K mile
bottom end."

Gazza

 

thanks everyone !
It is connected to a tender and I put stabilizer in the tank prior to putting it away.

I wish I was able to take it out when the weather permits, but it is blocked in the front of the garage pretty good with the snowblower, firewood, etc.
I'll start taking it out the first week of March.

 

Why don't you ride it some?

 

As others have said; if you start it be prepared to run it for a while, preferably out on the street. I'm in NJ so the while it is cold here, there are days when the temperature gets above 40 degrees so its ok to bundle up and go for a ride.

If you do take the bike out in cold, remember to check your tire pressures, and give your tires more time to warm up on the road before riding aggressively.

 

+1

gotta love ohio

 

your know - you guys have convinced me to move the bike to the front of the garage to take it out when it's warm enough.
I have never gone for a ride below 45degrees - it's time for me to act like a man !

 

There ya go...Ride the bike when you can.

35 - 45 degrees isn't bad. Starts to get brutal below 25 degrees.

 

Here in Arkansas I can usualy get in a ride every week or so.

 

Damn...45????? Ride that thing

 

I've heard of people removing the sparkplugs, squirt a little Marvel Mystery Oil in there, turn the fuel off, and spin the engine over to distribute the oil, put the plugs back in. Some will even spin the engine without plugs once a month to keep an oil film over the bearings. Grandpa always did this to the tractor engine every winter.