My bike is now in winter storage.

[meowguy_imp]

I have placed my bike into winter storage here in my garage today. It was 24 degrees this morning and that is pretty much my limit. Here is what I did to the bike.

1. At the filling station I placed the proper storage dose of fuel stabilizer in the tank for long term storage and filled the tank. That amounted to 1 oz. per gallon. Drove the bike home from filling station to work the stabilizer in. Took the longest route along the shore...four miles.

2. Drained the oil and replaced the filter.

3. Put in four quarts of Pro Honda 10W30 dino. Ran the motor briefly and checked the level. It was perfect at the high mark.

4. Removed the spark plugs and placed 15cc of the same motor oil in the cylinders. This was a little difficult to do so I poured it in using a plastic tube. A turkey baster would be ideal for this.

5. I let the oil sit in the cylinders for a short time, then holding throttle full open, I cranked the motor to make sure the oil spread inside the cylinders. FYI, did you know that if you hold the throttle fully open and crank the motor, it will not start? Mine wouldn't start anyway because the plugs were out, but I did not want a lot of fuel going into the cylinders.

6. Cleaned up the oil spray mist from the cylinders from the bottom of the tank. Loosely installed the spark plugs, left the wires loose as well. The plugs have very long threads and you will think they are never coming out, but they will. When they do come out, you will see the tiniest little plugs you have sever seen.

7. Cleaned the bike using Pro Honda Cleaner. Polished the header pipes with SemiChrome and 3M pad. Cleaned the rims, etc.

8. Plugged the bike into the Honda Optimate Battery Charger/Maintainer.

9. Put a scissor jack with wooden spacer under the crank case and cranked it up until the front wheel was just off the ground. Be careful when doing this that the center stand feet remain solid on the ground and do not tilt to one side.

10. Covered the bike with a breathable dust cover.

11. Cried real tears.

 

[rboe]

So, you can ride again in July?

 

[dBuster_imp]

Our bikes were put away last weekend also! Pretty much the same process although I didn't cover it and it was cleaned the day before. Plus I don't do the oil in the cylinders bit... *thinking*

Also that amount of stabil, I thought it was 1 oz to 2.5 gallons? not 1oz to 1 gallon... But I could be wrong. might have to dump some more in!

I pull the battery out of the bike and bring it in the house for the winter and charge it every other month instead of putting a tender on the battery in the bike. There is something about creating a nice warm spot for rodents to get at to keep warm in the winter... That tender and or battery... maybe that doesn't happen but I am not taking a chance.

Oh and to the smart one from Phoenix, I used to live in Yuma and we rode YEAR ROUND, even in the 120 degree days, so this is tough having to park for winter and if we are lucky here, pull it out in March/April time frame... One year I was riding in February but that is the rare occasion when it warms up fast... I saw your post on that other thread... Ran away from the winters did you?

 

[meowguy_imp]

Quote:Also that amount of stabil, I thought it was 1 oz to 2.5 gallons? not 1oz to 1 gallon... But I could be wrong. might have to dump some more in!
I did not use STABIL. I used FUEL MED Rx. It is a product of Yamaha Corp. Everyday use is 1 oz. per 3 gallons, long term storage is 1 oz. per gal.

So you just follow the directions you have for your product.

I also am ignoring our brother from AZ.

 

[CIP57_imp]

Battery tenders are good for short periods of charging. I would not run 1 all winter. The battery should come out of the bike and into a controlled climate for the winter and not on a metal surface.

I run 12 pieces of lawn equipment and several excavators and backhoes. We use to run tenders for the winter months but noticed it shortens the life of the battery. We now get 5-6 seasons where with tenders they were fried in 3 seasons.

 

[dBuster_imp]

Battery tenders are good for short periods of charging. I would not run 1 all winter. The battery should come out of the bike and into a controlled climate for the winter and not on a metal surface.

I run 12 pieces of lawn equipment and several excavators and backhoes. We use to run tenders for the winter months but noticed it shortens the life of the battery. We now get 5-6 seasons where with tenders they were fried in 3 seasons.

I am wanting to believe that the battery life is extended with bringing the battery into a climate controlled environment and not leaving it exposed to the cold.

Case being a friend had the same scooter as I did and he left his battery in the scooter over the winter and would tender it once a month. I bring my batteries inside and tender every 2 months. His battery only lasted 2 years, I still have the same battery 6 years later and still running strong.

But then again I would love to have a heated garage! ugh the costs of heating...

 

[CIP57_imp]

Battery tenders are good for short periods of charging. I would not run 1 all winter. The battery should come out of the bike and into a controlled climate for the winter and not on a metal surface.

I run 12 pieces of lawn equipment and several excavators and backhoes. We use to run tenders for the winter months but noticed it shortens the life of the battery. We now get 5-6 seasons where with tenders they were fried in 3 seasons.

I am wanting to believe that the battery life is extended with bringing the battery into a climate controlled environment and not leaving it exposed to the cold.

Case being a friend had the same scooter as I did and he left his battery in the scooter over the winter and would tender it once a month. I bring my batteries inside and tender every 2 months. His battery only lasted 2 years, I still have the same battery 6 years later and still running strong.

But then again I would love to have a heated garage! ugh the costs of heating...

I am wanting to believe that the battery life is extended with bringing the battery into a climate controlled environment and not leaving it exposed to the cold.

Case being a friend had the same scooter as I did and he left his battery in the scooter over the winter and would tender it once a month. I bring my batteries inside and tender every 2 months. His battery only lasted 2 years, I still have the same battery 6 years later and still running strong.

But then again I would love to have a heated garage! ugh the costs of heating... We put all of our batteries on a 2 x 10 and just let them naturally discharge over the winter.

 

[Jim21680_imp]

From what I understand, a "smart" tender (not a trickle charger) should be suitable to leave connected to a battery all winter, whether inside or not. Isn't that what they're designed to do? (Monitor and maintain the battery?)

 

[the Ferret]

I have been running 2 oz per gal of Seafoam during winter storage and battery tender jrs all year round on all my bikes..there are 4 motorcycles and 2 scooters on tenders right now and whenever they are not being ridden. That is the extent of my winter storage, and always has been. Unplug to ride, ride, plug in when I get back from ride. My batteries last on average 5 to 6 years.

 

[ride4now_imp]

Storage? What's that??? I 'store' my boat in Georgia...but not my bikes. Sorry, didn't mean to be a smart---. I pull the battery out of the boat and store it in the basement on a Sears charger designed for that purpose. But all 3 bikes, 2 in Georgia and 1 in Florida are on trickle chargers and like Ferret, unplug to ride, plug in when done. I always use Sta-Bil, marine type in all... 1 oz per 2-3 gallons, whatever it says on the bottle. I'm sorry you guys are in storage, but maybe now I can 'catch up'!

 

[CIP57_imp]

BatteryMINDer 2012: 12v 2 Amp Charger, Maintainer, Desulfator

Battery MINDer

The above link is to a charger/conditioner that we use. This charger has brought batteries back from the dead that have gone on to last a year + Most chargers do not have conditioning (de-sulphation ) which is the prime reason why batteries fry. Its a build up of sulfuric acid on the storage plates creating a barrier which will not allow the battery to charge. Be sure if you leave a battery on a tender for any length of time especially below freezing that it has a conditioner.

 

[HikerToo_imp]

How much are new motorcycle batteries these days?

 

[meowguy_imp]

Quote:How much are new motorcycle batteries these days?
I believe in "the law of unintended consequences" which always bites you in the butt whenever you think you are doing something good. A guy at my marina always took his instruments off the boat after every trip. No one had ever had anything stolen from the marina, but he wanted to keep them safe. As the instruments were being carried to the boat one time, they were all dropped into the water by accident. A diver was hired at great expense to retrieve them and they were never the same.

Leave the battery in the bike whether you trickle charge it or not.

All the things that could happen if you take it out are:
1. You drop it.
2. You short out the whole bike.
3. You start a fire in the bike which burns down your entire house.
4. I could go on, but I won't.

 

[dBuster_imp]

We could go on and on with this subject.

I have for 15 plus years always pulled my batteries and brought them inside. Never once have I had an issue. As far as shorting out your system, if you always remember the proper way to remove a battery you should have no problems. I don't think I will be dropping my batteries in the river, as I live on the Mississippi river or next to it i should say.

About burning down the house or shorting out something, how many car or bike dealerships have burned down from battery removal/installation? They do it a lot more than the average Joe so you would think we would be hearing about one all the time if it was that bad.

But I can agree with you that the inexperienced might have or run into those issues.

But like I said we can go back and forth but let's not. If you want the last word on this go for it.

Sent from my XT901 using Tapatalk 4.2.2

 

[rboe]

If you live in a cold to very cold state in the winter; if the battery had a good charge and is in a good state (and it won't see twenty below) I'd just leave it till spring then recharge for the following reasons.

If you remember your high school chemistry chemical reactions like heat. Things not working so well? Add energy to the system with heat. Cool things off and chemical reactions slow down or stop. It's for this reason that batteries last so much longer up north than in Phoenix. The heat just cooks batteries down here. Standard car battery lives about 18 months (person experience) where as in Minnesota seven years is not unheard of.

I had one guy come into my parts department with this very small Yuasa battery for a dirt bike that was ten years old and was finally dead. No trickle charger, stored in the bike (you need to control the sulfate that forms on the terminals so you don't ruin the bike or cables) and otherwise treated with little love.

Now my way may not be the best way any more, but I'm not convinced a battery on trickle charge does it good for that long. At least in cold states. Warm states I'm all for trickle chargers as the battery will self destruct due to the heat keeping the chemical reactions going sulfating the battery.

I never pickled an engine for storage either. Parked her, charged it up in the spring and rode her. The cold kept things like rust at bay (just another chemical reaction). With todays gas with ethanol I don't think I could get away with that so Seafoam or Stabil would be used.

 

[CIP57_imp]

Quote:How much are new motorcycle batteries these days?
I believe in "the law of unintended consequences" which always bites you in the butt whenever you think you are doing something good. A guy at my marina always took his instruments off the boat after every trip. No one had ever had anything stolen from the marina, but he wanted to keep them safe. As the instruments were being carried to the boat one time, they were all dropped into the water by accident. A diver was hired at great expense to retrieve them and they were never the same.

Leave the battery in the bike whether you trickle charge it or not.

All the things that could happen if you take it out are:
1. You drop it.
2. You short out the whole bike.
3. You start a fire in the bike which burns down your entire house.
4. I could go on, but I won't.

I believe in "the law of unintended consequences" which always bites you in the butt whenever you think you are doing something good. A guy at my marina always took his instruments off the boat after every trip. No one had ever had anything stolen from the marina, but he wanted to keep them safe. As the instruments were being carried to the boat one time, they were all dropped into the water by accident. A diver was hired at great expense to retrieve them and they were never the same.

Leave the battery in the bike whether you trickle charge it or not.

All the things that could happen if you take it out are:
1. You drop it.
2. You short out the whole bike.
3. You start a fire in the bike which burns down your entire house.
4. I could go on, but I won't.
Meowguy,

Just a bit more info you may or may not have read with your unit.

**The OptiMate’s high voltage desulfation mode cannot engage if vehicle electronics / wiring are sensed, so to effectively desulfate a battery, it must be disconnected from the vehicle wiring.

 

[meowguy_imp]

Quote:Just a bit more info you may or may not have read with your unit.
Thanks for that. I looked it up and this is what I found.

The video from Tecmate Promotional Video Says nothing about disconnecting the battery from the vehicle to achieve continual desulfination.

The manufacturers owners manual says this:

"2. If the battery is deeply discharged (and possibly sulfated), it is essential to disconnect the battery from the
vehicle before connecting the charger for a recovery attempt. The charger’s special recovery mode cannot
engage if it senses that the battery is still connected to a vehicle wiring circuit which effectively offers a lower
electrical resistance than the battery on its own. However, if the deep-discharged battery is not removed for
recovery, neither battery nor vehicle electronics will be damaged."

[url=http://www.tecmate.com/pdf/TM151%20OptiMate%203+%20User%20Manual.pdf]Complete Techmate 3 Manual

So while it appears there is some truth to your statement, the real answer is "it depends". My situation is fine as I have it.

 

[dBuster_imp]

If you live in a cold to very cold state in the winter; if the battery had a good charge and is in a good state (and it won't see twenty below) I'd just leave it till spring then recharge for the following reasons.

If you remember your high school chemistry chemical reactions like heat. Things not working so well? Add energy to the system with heat. Cool things off and chemical reactions slow down or stop. It's for this reason that batteries last so much longer up north than in Phoenix. The heat just cooks batteries down here. Standard car battery lives about 18 months (person experience) where as in Minnesota seven years is not unheard of.

I had one guy come into my parts department with this very small Yuasa battery for a dirt bike that was ten years old and was finally dead. No trickle charger, stored in the bike (you need to control the sulfate that forms on the terminals so you don't ruin the bike or cables) and otherwise treated with little love.

Now my way may not be the best way any more, but I'm not convinced a battery on trickle charge does it good for that long. At least in cold states. Warm states I'm all for trickle chargers as the battery will self destruct due to the heat keeping the chemical reactions going sulfating the battery.

I never pickled an engine for storage either. Parked her, charged it up in the spring and rode her. The cold kept things like rust at bay (just another chemical reaction). With todays gas with ethanol I don't think I could get away with that so Seafoam or Stabil would be used.

I must have been just plain lucky when I lived in Yuma, AZ for those 18 years. Vehicle batteries for me lasted 5 to 7 years! All depending on the size of the battery. My 1973 GMC pickup I owned for 10 years and that battery was replaced once just before I sold it.

Unless things have changed in the past 10 years since I was last living there...

 

[rboe]

That is amazing! In Phoenix (and I would expect Yuma to be no better, maybe worse) car batteries typically don't go beyond two years unless you go with an Odysse or AGM etc.

 

[flynrider]

I get about 4 years out of a battery in my truck. Of course, it doesn't get driven every day in the heat. I usually ride one of the bikes.

Smaller batteries tend to suffer the most. My bike and airplane batteries max out at 3 years. This year I finally got around to swapping the lead acid battery in the plane for an AGM. We'll see how that goes.