Motorcycle Storage Made Easy

No matter what kind of bike you ride, motorcycle storage through the winter is a necessary evil in most parts of the country. Unless you live in the Deep South, winter can be brutal on motorcycles. Snow, ice and wind can do lots of damage to your bike, and leaving your "baby" out on the street through midwinter is simply not an option.

Luckily, you have plenty of options when it comes to storing your motorcycle through the winter, and with a bit of prep work, you can be sure that your bicycle highway occur in the spring, as new and ready to strike.

Your first decision is where your bike shop. Ideally, the environment to store your bike in a climate controlled. A heated garage or basement is an option, but it is also a commercial storage facility, as many of them are equipped with air conditioning throughout the year.

When you look at a store, are your major concerns thata stable temperature (preferably 65° or above), and that it is a dry environment. The worst possible storage situation is one where the temperature will vary greatly from day to night. Back and forth temperature extremes can wreak havoc on many parts of your bike, including leather seats, rubber gaskets, and plastic seals and fuel lines.

So even if your bike must be stored at a lower than optimum temperature, you are still better off keeping the temperature steady, rather than submitting your motorcycle to extreme climate ups and downs throughout the winter.

Once you have decided on a storage facility or found a suitable heated garage or basement in which to keep your motorcycle for the winter, it's time to start preparing your bike for storage. Your first concern will be the fuel tank and gas line.

Gasoline left in your fuel tank and fuel lines through the winter can become gunky and clog up your engine. An inexpensive but effective Solution is the use of "Sta-bil," or a similar solution to the gas processing plant. These solutions are best on a tank of gas down, but not working yet. Make sure the gas above the reserve before the addition of the gas treatment.

Your next big concern before storing your bike will be the battery. If left-driven, battery, bike series will go flat in less than two weeks. Of course you can only groped to remember to start the engine every week, the batteryoffice or even a battery charger to apply once a week or so.

But the truth is that it is easy to forget a lot, constantly calculating or crank your bike, the battery can easily lead to. A better way to go is to invest money in a motorcycle trickle charge the battery. These small devices are made to connect the battery and left on all winter.

Support your charger is only in place in order to avoid overloadingduring the winter. Overcharging can actually be just as bad a problem as letting the battery go dead, because it can damage the battery cells to the point where they will no longer hold a sufficient charge. Battery maintainers eliminate this problem, and will ensure that your bike emerges from motorcycle storage in the spring as good as new.