Ten Simple Steps to Winterize Your Motorcycle

I have posted this article on winterizing a bike the last few years here. Hope it still helps someone.

1) Surface Prep

Washing your bike when nobody will see it for a few months anyway can be a drag, but giving your bike a thorough cleaning before storage is important When you let bug guts or water spots or dirt spots sit on your paint over the winter can corrode the finish permanently. Wash your bike and dry it completely to get all the moisture off the surfaces. You can use an electric or gas leaf blower  to get all the nooks and crannies completely dry.
Add a coat of wax, which will act as a barrier against moisture and rust. Finally, spray exposed metal surface with WD-40 to displace all moisture (fun fact: the WD in “WD-40” stands for water displacement) and to give them a protective coating against corrosion.

2) Change Oil and Filter

Change your oil and filter. It’s better for your lubrication system to have fresh oil sitting in it for several months than to have used, broken down oil in it, not to mention the last thing you’ll want to do when riding season begins is change the oil before you can go ride. Using a winter weight oil like 5W30 can help it start up easier come spring time as well.
If you’re going to be storing your bike for a long time (4-6 months or more) you will want to protect your engine’s internals against moisture by coating them lightly with oil. You may not be able to see it with your naked eye, but the cold winter air is perfect for moisture to gather in your engine and cause rust to form on your pistons and cylinder walls.
In order to do this, remove the spark plugs and put a little squirt (about a tablespoon) of engine oil into the holes, then turn your engine over a few times to coat the cylinder walls by spinning the rear wheel with the bike in gear. Once everything is coated, replace the spark plugs.

3) Lube Moving Parts

Keeping moving parts lubed up during the winter. This will help keep moisture from building up on them and causing any rusting or binding. Any part of your motorcycle that needs to be lubed at any point should be lubed again before storage. Some parts to check are: chain drive, cables, controls, fork surfaces, and any other pivot points.
 

4) Prep Fuel System

Gas tanks have a tendency to rust when not in use, and untreated pump gas breaks down and becomes gummy over time. To prevent rusting and make sure your fuel is ready to run after a few months in storage you will want to fill your tank completely with fuel treated with a product like Sta-Bil or Sea Foam both are great Fuel Stabilizers.
On your last ride of the season before you plan on storing your bike. Stop at the gas station nearest to where you live and add the proper amount of fuel stabilizer then top off the tank with a full tank of fuel. This will keep moisture from building up on the tank walls and adding the stabilizer before the short ride home will help mix the gas and stabilizer together and run it through your fuel system before storage.
 

5) Safeguard Battery

Batteries have a tendency to self-discharge when sitting over time, especially when they remain hooked up to the bike. The easiest way to combat this is to hook up a battery tender like the ones that uses smart technology to monitor the charge and keep the battery topped off without overcharging. Normally you should pull the battery from the bike for storage, but with a smart tender you can also connect the tender with the battery left in the bike. Before doing this, make sure the electrodes are clean and corrosion free if necessary clean them off and give them a light coating of grease.

6) Protect Tires

If your tires are left to sit in the same position all winter long, they could develop flat spots. Keeping the tires off of the ground will prevent this, so if you have a motorcycle stand/Jack you can put the bike up on them for storage. If you don’t have stands try to get at least the rear tire off the ground, or you can rotate your tires by rolling your motorcycle slightly every few weeks. If you need to leave your tires down on concrete put a piece of carpet or plywood under them to keep any moisture from seeping into them.
 

7) Check Coolant/Anti-freeze

If you are storing your bike somewhere that gets below freezing, make sure you have adequate levels of anti freeze in your coolant system. This is very important; if you run straight water in your coolant system and it freezes, you could come back to a cracked head in the spring!

8) Plug Out Pests

Mice and other rodents are notorious for hiding from the cold inside exhaust pipes and making homes out of air filters. In order to avoid any furry surprises when it’s time to ride again plug up your pipes with an exhaust plug. Or you can also simply stuff your air intake and the ends of your exhaust with some plastic bags – but do use bright colored bags or tie something to them so you don’t forget to take them off when you fire up the bike!

9) Keep it Covered

With your motorcycle fully prepped for winter, invest in a proper quality motorcycle cover. It will not only keep dust off the bike, but will keep the moisture out so it doesn’t get trapped underneath it, and create corrosion or rust. If you’re storing it outside, be sure to get a cover with tie downs to prevent it from blowing loose in wind. If you’re storing it inside you’re in much better shape, but you should still use a cover to prevent dust from building up on it.

10) Theft Protection

If you’re storing your bike outside, bear in mind that being parked unattended for months at a time makes it an easy target for theft. In addition to protecting your bike from weather, using a cover will conceal it from view, and securing it with a heavy lock and chain can give you some peace of mind. If you are going to  be storing your bike anywhere it can be accessed by others consider investing in some security measures.
Michael Theodore                                                                                                                  National Road Captain

Upcoming Events

The following are some events of interest that have been posted by members on the ASR website. (Don’t see your event listed? Double check to be sure you have submitted it on the main website.)

Saturday, February 1, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Friday, September 5, 2014

Motorcycle Storage: 7 Ways to Keep Winter from Trashing Your Ride

winterizing_motorcycle

Few things beat cruising down the highway on a warm summer day, but during winter your motorcycle isn’t exactly the most convenient way of dashing through the snow. While your bike is in storage for the season, it’s important not to give it the cold shoulder. Maintaining your motorcycle while you’re not riding it is just as important as when you are. Read more details here: Motorcycle Storage: 7 Ways to Keep Winter from Trashing Your Ride.

Motorcycles for Missionaries

Click here to access the “Motorcycles for Missionaries” map on the ASR site.

A quick summary: Uruguay has received three (3) motorcycles ~ Missionaries: Michael & Ivonne Walmer; Russia has received one (1) motorcycle ~ Missionaries: Robert & Sheri Moses; India has received two (2) motorcycles; Cambodia has received one (1) motorcycle; Taiwan has received two (2) motorcycles ~ Missionaries: Chris & Tiffany Bracken and Tom & Sandra Bracken; Japan has received one (1) motorcycle ~ Missionaries Ed & Naomi Hosmer.

How is your local ASR chapter doing on your fundraising toward this worthy cause? Do you have fundraising ideas or success stories? Log into the ASR Forum and let us know!

About Motorcycles for Missionaries

Being a motorcycle ministry, Azusa StreetRiders has a goal to help further the apostles’ doctrine by providing motorcycles, motor scooters or even bicycles to missionaries on foreign fields. In many countries, the best and sometimes only means of reaching certain people with the gospel of Jesus Christ is to ride a two-wheeled vehicle to remote locations or in heavily congested traffic areas where cars can only move at a snail’s pace. To us, the dedicated missionaries who use two-wheeled transportation are truly brothers in arms. To this end, Azusa StreetRiders has a goal to purchase as many motorcycles or motor scooters as possible each year and place them in the capable hands of foreign missionaries to use in their work. We’ve set up a special account and are funding it through local fundraising events. Your help is needed. There are lots of ways you may be able to help: by participating in fundraising events and riding with us, by sponsoring such events, by volunteering time to help, and/or by donating food or merchandise to help make events successful. Of course, anyone may also donate directly.

Bike Scams to Avoid

It’s pretty sad how hard some people will work to steal from others. If they would just work as hard at an honest living as they do trying to con people, they’d do just fine, and we’d all be better off. One type of con that is rather amazing in its depth of “scamminess” is the “motorcycle seller has shipped the bike to you” scam. It goes something like this:

You’re on the hunt for a new bike. (We hope you’re not planning on going into debt to make the purchase, so lets just say that you’ve saved the money, and it’s about to burn a hole in your pocket. )You’re googling “Harley for sale” or “Honda for sale” or whatever. You just happen to find, on some unheard-of website of bikes for sale, a splendid specimen for an amazingly low price. It could be real. Maybe not. You’re on the alert.

Just in case it is real, you reach out to the seller. Clicking the link may lead to another page on a different site, but eventually you are either permitted to send a message via some website, or you obtain a regular email address and write to them.

They answer. The bike is still for sale. It’s as glorious as the ad listing proclaimed, but there are just some extenuating circumstances. The seller is currently located at XYZ location, while the bike is still at some prior address or some location  other than where the seller is at the moment.

You tell them you’re only willing to work through a legit escrow agency. They tell you that’s fine. They offer that they will ship the bike to you, and the money does not have to change hands until you have the bike in yours. There are vague but reasonable-sounding promises that you can make arrangements for payment via an escrow agency, and you will have a certain reasonable window of time (some days) after the bike arrives to either approve or disapprove of the transaction.

At this point, you are thinking you are not in danger, but you are wondering if it is legit. After a few more days of occasional contact, the seller seems content that you are serious. Next thing you know, you’re being notified that they have shipped the bike. “Wait,” you think to yourself, “I thought I was first supposed to make some connection with an escrow agency of my choosing?”

Then you start getting emails (with attachments) from a company that advertises itself as both a bike transport company, and an escrow-type company that facilitates sales. You stand to save thousands of dollars on this gorgeous bike.

There are multiple versions of the scam from this point forward. In one version, “you only need to pay for the shipping charges.” Say again? Yes, several hundreds of dollars in shipping charges. In another version, the documentation may “require” that you pay a “deposit.” In one recent case where this scam was actually attempted (but not successful) the amount of the “required” deposit was “only” $1,500 (on a bike that, if it really existed, would be worth about $10,000-$11,000, and which the seller had advertised for sale for only $6,500).

By the attachments, the con artists are essentially saying, “Look at all these really authentic-looking documents with actual signatures.” (Really?) There are often all sorts of documents—there may be a waybill and/or a bill of lading, tax documents, customs forms, a contract, or whatever. It all just looks so legit. See attachments below from the above-mentioned actual scam effort that did not succeed.

It’s amazing how realistic this “company’s” website will seem. All these documents seem so proper. The original listing may have even been on a trustworthy site. But don’t get comfortable. Warning! Danger! The payment method choices will likely demand either a bank transfer, wire transfer, money order, cashier’s check, or debit card transaction. If you use one of those methods, it will be as though you just handed them cash, and they’re gone. You won’t have any big “PayPal” company or any credit card company willing and able to go to bat for you, chasing down a “merchant” that hopes to continue doing business with them. Your money will be gone.

Consider that by the time you’re to that point, the con artist(s) will have spent several days luring you in (or at least attempting to). Who knows how many hours of labor they have spent in creating that whole fake company website, plus more hours spent in conjuring all the fake documentation. Amazing.

Caveat Emptor is Latin for “Let the buyer beware.” Indeed. As the old timers would often say, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” It’s always to good be careful, and today more so than ever.

Below are “documents” from an actual scam effort that did not succeed:

Contract-of-sale-1of3 Contract-of-sale-2of3 Contract-of-sale-3of3 Purchase-order