Tips for Winterizing Your Motorcycle

  I'm gathering some tips here for putting a motorcycle away for the winter.  This is the way I do it and I've learned this mostly from the Triumph dealership where I bought my bike: Locomotion Powersports in Mahwah, NJ.  I keep my bike in an unheated garage so these tips will be different if you keep your bike outside because you'll need a bike cover in that case.

  The first thing I do is to get a full tank of high quality gas.  It's good to fill the tank before you put a bike away.  With the gas, I also put in some gas stabilizer (measurements are on the bottle).
  The next thing I do is fill my tires, I use a portable air compressor from P.I. Auto Store and it's been working great for years.  *Make sure your tires are cold before you inflate them

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  Then I clean and polish my bike using this spray cleaner and polish.  It's important to polish the chrome before the winter.  This product should be used outdoors and not inside.  
  Last year I cleaned and lubricated my chain, which you should do every 500 miles.

  When my bike is ready to be put in my garage, I roll it onto two carpet swatches from an old carpet roll.  This is good for the tires because it stops the tires from developing flat spots.  Since my bike is over 500 pounds, it can be tricky to line up both tires onto the carpet so I measured out the distance between my tires and measured out the swatches on the garage floor before rolling the bike in.

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​  Next thing I do is put some plastic bags over the exhaust pipes.  Make sure your pipes aren't hot because it'll melt the plastic.

 

​  The last and most important thing I do is to plug in my bike to my battery tender.  I always have my bike plugged into this, but it really matters over the winter to keep the battery from dying.  My bike has a port that's near the seat that plugs in.

  Alright that's it, now it's time to wait until riding season starts again.