Winter Storage

I know many of you out there are fortunate enough to not have to be concerned with this, so don't rub it in. But from those that have to park it for the winter, how do you store yours? Do you store it sitting on the tires or do you raise it off the floor of your garage? I have always just parked mine on the kick stand, plug in the battery tender and throw a breathable cover over it. Never had any problems when I get it out in the spring.

My brother in-law stores his up in the air on his bike lift. Seems to think you get flat spots in the tires if you leave it on the floor. Someone told him that it's not a good idea to store it on a lift because the weight of the rear wheel puts to much strain on the swing arm busings. Any thoughts on this?

I have always stored mine on a lift. Part of the benefit to that is taking the weight off the suspension. The bushing thing doesn't make sense to me, but I'm not the pro. With my Softail, I have rubber bumper-type things that I put on the frame so that the lift doesn't rest on the shocks underneath the bike.

I take the battery out and bring it inside and put it on the battery tender once a month. I could do that without removing the battery since I now have the harness permanently hooked up. I didn't do it last year though because I don't have an outlet outside the apartment.

I change the oil right before I put it up and fill the gas tank and put stabilizer in it and run it for a few minutes.

I really really really don't even want to think about it but I must. I just leave it on the jiffy stand. And do the following:

wash and wax - not yet done
remove battery - not yet done
battery tender - not yet done

Waiting as long as I can!!

I concur with bikerputz, when I had my old Dyna, I left it in the garage on its kickstand and on a tender. I am not sure about the gas stabilizer, I just put fresh gas and fill the tank. Never had an issue with it.

As far as ringo912 observations on the flat spots, that is easily solved, so long as you keep your tire pressures up. I checked mine every chance I get. There is a very good chance that you'll lose about 2 to 5 pounds for every 10 degree drop in temperature. So if I am low, I'll fire the old compressor up and fill up to spec. Low pressure tires will suffer, because of the weight of the bike's front end, thereby the flat spot.

Regards,
German

Use the fuel stabilizer. Seen fuel go bad so many times lately and had to rescue the stowers (bikes, ATVs, even cars) that I swear by the stuff. Works great in chainsaws and lawnmowers, too.

luckily for me my baby is stored in a heated garage year round, well, not heated in the summer obviously, but nevertheless, you get the point....so I don't usually do anything to it. I don't use stabilizer or anything. I just check the tire pressure occasionally. I usually start it up once in a while and let it run to keep the battery charged up. I usually roll it to the garage door so I don't kill myself with exhaust though. I've never had any issues with it so far. I am not sure if what I do is the "proper" way to keep it stored but so far it's worked out for me. I'm sure one of you guys will set me straight though....

Thanks Chuck, I thought for sure somebody would yell at me....:roflmao:

Plus, every once in a while, I will take it out if we have a nice day here and there. Hell, last year I was riding on New Years day, it was 60 degrees!

Fuel stabilizer costs about 5 or 10 bucks and is easy to do, so why not take the extra precaution. It sounds like the case for putting it on the lift isn't all that great. Unfortunately, in NH we can't (or shouldn't) ride in the middle of winter even if we do get a warm day because of all the salt on the roads. My rule of thumb is two hard rains since the last snow. While we do have rain in the middle of winter, it generally turns to ice and the salt trucks are out. I've been able to ride in March and then not again until almost May because of a random snowstorm.

This year I'm keeping my bike down in Loveland. Apparently they ride all year in that area. Hopefully I'll be able to get down on the weekends to take it out. They're picking it up today to haul it out there.

I agree with ya Hot01....the bike lift thing didn't seem to make sense to me either. But ya gotta take care of your family. So when my borther in-law asked about it, I figured I would bring it to the experts. Personally I change the oil, wash the bike, add fuel stabilizer, plug in the tender and throw a breathable cover over it.

Thanks to everyone for all the input.

Though my garage is kept from reaching the freezin temps outside I still use stabil in the fuel tank. also followed the tips I got in this article couple years ago - Winter Storage - Preparing your motorcycle for a winter's nap
buying a battery tender helped alot too. Now when spring comes just do a fluid change and she is good to go.

That's great reference material, I am sure it will be put to good use!

Regards,
German