Winter Storage

[pcarrell]

I change the oil every fall and every winter, but that's mostly because I have cold weather riding gear, so if there is no snow / ice  salt on the road, I'll ride through the winter.  That being said, sometimes I can't ride for a while in the winter, and I do use a battery tender then.

[CDNRatMan]

  man having that green eyed monster on your back must get tiring.......I already have the carpet underlay on the floor and the sheet of 3/4" plywood laid out ready. But here is my winterizing system by me works for me so I will continue it.....
Day I am parking the bike add 2 glugs of sea foam to the oil and the gas tank, take it for a short ride, if possible if not run in the driveway till hot, put it on the lift, slightly down in front, like half an inch, drain the oil, clean the filter screen. Replace oil filter, fill close to full but not worried it will get to the right level over the winter as I am doing other maintenance. Drain fuel to empty and then this year it will be remove tank due to valve job, so will air the tank out in the shed before moving it to the house, last year it was drained and left on the bike. the bike is then placed on the jack and leveled off, safety catches locked, fans positioned in the correct spots, TV is aligned with the front of the bike. Remote for the DVD player is mounted to the bars, and Trolls DVD is in the machine ready to play, on those cold winter nights and I can ride the back roads of Wisconsin in the US of A.........like Michael Parks of "Then Came Bronson"........
oh and about March I plug in the battery tender to get the battery up and fully charged and ready. 

[greenbarn]

Mr. Feed Poster had this link in "general bike news", elsewhere on this forum.  I know some probably don't look at some of the threads there, and I thought it was interesting.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/10/how-to-prep-your-motorcycle-for-winter-storage/index.htm

I had a couple questions for the group.

How many change their oil before winter, or rather after winter??   I have always done general maintenance on stuff in the spring, before using it for the summer.  CR claims it's better to do it before storage.  I guess I can maybe see the logic there, so wondered how many people do that??

Second?  How many use a battery tender over the winter?  I think it's a good idea, and they're not all that much money.

It's too bad, but not all of us have room in the Living Room like Ratman.....