Its getting pretty cold here in Iowa. That brings up the seasonal flow of bikes that come into the shop looking to get winterized. There are a lot of questions about do’s or don’t’s. What do I have to do? What materials do I need? Maybe I can help clear some of this up. A man of means would know what to do.
• Fuel system
• Electrical system (if you bike uses a battery)
• Lubrication
• Tires
• Cooling system (if you have a liquid cooled cycle)
There are other noteworthy things to mention as well, but these are the main areas of concentration. Paying attention to these will allow your bike to properly be started and ridden when that weather hits riding time again, or if you just don’t plan on using your bike for a while.
Fuel system:
This is the area that is most likely to put the stops to your bike firing back up after its been sitting for more then a few weeks. First, lets talk fuel in general. Normal octane running motorcycles and atvs use fuel right from the gas station. As we all know this can vary from station to station. Some fuel stations are older, some newer. Some don’t have the volume of customers to have their tanks refilled after time. Some do. So to say that the fuel in your bike is going to deteriorate at the same rate as your buddies ride, is not going to be entirely true. I have come to a time frame that I use as a rule of thumb when recommending setting up your bike to combat bad fuel from storage periods. Maybe your bike doesn’t go through storage periods, but you can only get around riding it once a month or so. You can use three weeks as a good guideline in making a decision on whether you need to be concerned about fuel storage related issues.
All bikes will have a fuel tank or cell of some sort. The rest of your bike gets any fuel from this compartment. So lets start with that. When properly storing your ride. You will need to know the approximate capacity that your fuel cell holds. This is important because you will need to add fuel stabilizer to it. I know there is the good ol’ saying that “if a little is good, then a lot is better”. This rule doesn’t really apply to adding fuel stabilizer. There are a few really common products out there. The local dealership will likely have these on hand as well. I haven’t heard of a bad one to use. I only hear about the cases of riders who don’t use it at all. There are also guidelines on the bottle that indicate whether you want to use it for longterm storage, or your bike just gets used infrequently. Use as directed! These companies spend the time and efforts to come up with what works for their product. So I am pretty sure they have a good idea of how their product works. On most of the bottles I have read, even if they don’t print it. You will want to fill the fuel tank to the top. This helps in a couple different ways. A given amount of fuel will deteriorate at a quicker rate with lesser volume. It is more prone to carry the effects of what oxygen likes to do to it. In a fuel tank more fuel will deteriorate or have less affect on your fuel system when there is more of it. Also for those of you who have a metal fuel tank. When the metal interior of the tank is exposed to moisture, humidity, condensation, it can rust. That is just a bad cancer that you don’t want to deal with.
Now that the fuel in the tank is good to go, we will need to talk about intake. This is going to be a bit different depending whether your bike has fuel injection, or if it is carbureted. The fuel injection is the easiest. When servicing your bike for storage. Simply make sure that the fuel tank was properly stabilized. Simply run the motorcycle for a little bit. I usually run them for about 5 minutes. Or, till they get up to operating temp. This will allow the stabilized fuel to enter into the fuel pump, fuel hosing, and the injectors. Nothing else is needed. The fuel systems in a fuel injected bike are not typically exposed to oxygen. The fuel is sealed from outside elements. It will not deteriorate like a carbed system will.
Carbureted system. The fuel delivery system for these bike does deteriorate. The float chambers in the carbs are vented to the atmosphere. That means fuel in the float chamber is exposed to oxygen, and humidity. This will cause this fuel to go bad. As I said before, usually around after a few weeks. Like using the method for the injected bikes you will want to run the bike for a little bit ensuring all stabilized fuel gets into the fuel lines and fuel tubes, and ect. Some will argue this is good enough. I will say that this can be fine. Some go a step further and after letting stabilized fuel in the carbs. They will drain the float bowls. I am on the fence on this one. I have seen it go good and bad both ways. I will say I have seen more better results with draining the float bowls. I have also seen stabilized fuel in the carbs work as well. I am more toward the draining of the float bowls. Most modern carbs on bikes will have a float bowl drain screw. In this case you will shut the fuel valve to the off position. Open the drain screw on the carbs, and let fuel drain from the drain tube. When I do this, I go a step further and quick crank the bike over just for a second. I believe this pulls out any fuel that is the jetting. That leaves a nice dry carb. This means no bad fuel to plug anything up. I believe the drawback to this can be if the carb contains internal o-rings. If the bike gets put up for a long long time. These o-rings can dry out and have some affects. I haven’t seen this happen a lot, but I have seen it. Also if not all the fuel dried up from the float valves. Then this will leave a sticky residue that likes to hang them up. Ive heard so many times, “I got my bike fired up, and fuel just started pouring out everywhere”. Yep, float valve stuck. Then I have seen leaving fuel in the carbs have issues as well. This is usually from not enough stabilized fuel making it into the carbs. Or the bike sits for a very very long time, and fuel evaporates out of the venting of the carb, leaving a bad residue. So maybe read this and try to determine which route you will want to go there. Either way, make sure you attempt to winterize the fuel system. I can say that fixing a bike from not being properly stored is one of the most common repairs I encounter.
Electrical system:
This mostly deals with bikes that contain, or use a battery of any kind. There is one other factor to consider if you don’t have a bike with a battery, and that is rodents. These little guys for some reason love wiring. I don’t get it, but they do. There are little tricks of the trade to help deter them. I have heard of using laundry dryer sheets. I have seen though, through Honda. They have a tape available, that is coated with a spice or some sort. This deters rodents. You wrap the tape along areas of the wiring harness and this keeps them from your spendy precious wiring. I don’t know of any bulletproof plan for dealing with these. So do the best to store away from them.
On to batteries. Rule of thumb is to disconnect and remove them from the bike. Keep them in a preferably room temp, well ventilated room. Do no store on concrete. I have heard rumor of concrete draining battery health because something about magnetism and earth rotating, I dunno, whatever. I do know however that concrete likes to condensate. That can get into the battery, so if you do store on a basement floor. Keep a board or something under it. Also keep in mind, maintenance style batteries that are not sealed. They can evaporate out electrolyte. So maybe even keeping a rubber mat or something under it to not damage any flooring. This may be a bit particular. But some people want to know.
I highly recommend a battery storage charger. There are only a couple on the market. These plug onto your battery, you plug the unit it, then forget about it till next time you ride. Don’t confuse this with a regular battery charger. There are specific chargers meant for doing this. Battery tender is one of them. Ive also seen battery optimizer. One of these can keep your battery up to health for a good amount of time. Depending on the health of your battery. Just time alone can allow them to drop voltage, and in turn deteriorate health. So again, I would recommend a battery storing charger.
Lubrication:
This is an often overlooked step when setting a bike up for storage. Many lubricants that are used in bikes are petrol based lubricants. Being a fossil fuel, It can deteriorate over time. I would say in the perfect world, and to be totally safe. You would want to change the oil before and after storage. Some don’t like the idea of this, but heres the reason behind the madness. I would say definitely an oil change before if anything. The oil in your bike has several functions. It cools, cleans, and lubricates. In this case the cleaning part of it is what is crucial. Since that oil is washing all kinds of soot and debris away, and keeping it suspended. That grime over time, will eventually settle to the bottom of the crankcase. Once all that heavy sediment has made it to a nice pile in the bottom of the engine. You go to fire the bike up, and what is the first thing that oil pump is going to start to distribute thoughout the entire motor? All that stuff and some oil with it. Ive seen this ruin engines. So a good oil change before storage is important. So going back to what I previously wrote. Oil will deteriorate over time as well. It would note be accurate to say, you have good oil when you first start the bike over a year of sitting, from when you changed the oil before you stored it. Many service manuals will also show in the service schedule oil changes from mileage and time.
On two stroke bikes, it may be worth considering fogging the cylinders with fogging oil. With the design of the two stoke motors. The oil mixed with the fuel keeps the main engine internals protected. When these are stored condensation can have an affect on major engine components, like crankshaft, piston, cylinder, things like that. Fogging oil can help deter these parts from deteriorating. When using this stuff, again, follow directions on bottle. Use fogging oil used for this type of application. A bottle of 10w40 and an air compressor does not cut it. (yes I have heard of this being done). Here is a complete guide on oil alot of people as alot of different things about it. So here is the place to get all you need to know about oil ==> OIL EXPLAINED
Tires:
This is another overlooked but I believe important step in setting your ride up for storage. Many bikes get parked I the garage, sometimes basements. These most likely have concrete flooring. Again, conrete flooring likes to condensate. With a bike sitting in the same spot for months, that condensation can absorb in the rubber of the tire. This will make the tires’ integrity different in one spot from another. How bad? Usually not horrible. I just feel this is a topic at least worth mentioning. It is important however to keep the tires properly inflated. This again will combat from having flat spots, or crack the sidewalls of the tires.
This only pertains to bikes with liquid cooling. The biggest thing with coolant is, making sure that the coolant is in good health. By that I mean old coolant that has withstood a couple years of working will attact moisture. When you have more moisture, or water then coolant. This can ice up in cold weather and create problems with freezing in cylinders, and cylinder heads. Also for those of you who like to run their bike periodically in the winter, a frozen water pump impeller can snap off pretty easy when frozen in place, and your motor wants to rotate the shaft it drives from.
Also if you use tap water with your coolant. The minerals in the coolant can deteriorate the linings of the radiator pretty easily. This is usually something that tends to happen when the coolant has been at a stand still, and doesn’t move enough to clean any surface. Conclusion:
There is a lot to consider when letting your bike sit for a while. They are made to function when riding, so when they sit. Oustside elements have a great impact on how these machines will function later on when you deciede to go riding again.
No comments:
Post a Comment