Panned it for the winter!
 

Well, due to financial demands, I've had to park it for now.

So the new tyres will happen after the new year.

Even downgraded insurance to 3PFT.

Planning on a SORN notice this week.

Just to rub it in, what goes past me on the Kingston Bridge tonight comming home, stuck in the cage Jam?

Yeah, a brave Silver SV rider, dodging us wimps in the cages and I swear he was laughing :wink:

Anyone got any advice in storing for winter? Gave it a good clean down, lubed all the mechanicals, filled the tank to the brim, trickle charger at the ready. Anything else?

Cheers

i usually start the bike once a fortnight and move it a bit to stop brakes seizing and stop tyres getting damaged (dont know if they do get damaged staying in same place, but i have it in my head that they do)

Paddock stands & lift it off the tyres & drop to 5-10 psi, fuel stabilizer in the tank (& drain carb bowls if applicable), change engine oil & filter, oil the fork rubbers & work suspension up & down, let bike run to normal temperature one last time, once cool wd40 exposed engine parts radiator and exhaust, stuff rags in exhaust and intakes, sit down, open beer, look at it for an hour, go inside and drown sorrows with whiskey bottle.

Bugger that....... Keep running it and hose it down after each run.......snow and ice is when mine gets parked up

:winner:

Just serviced 1k miles back.... still change oil and filter?

Hosed it with FS365.

I take it the bungs in the pipe and intakes is to protect it from moisture?

The sorrows were and still are being drowned!

It's like that seasonal adjustment thingy.......... just 10 times worse.

Was buzzing when I got it from Perth MC's in March, had a great time through summer, the highlight, trip to Skye end of August. Low point putting the cover on for the last time until next year :twisted:

Even women can't make you feel like this :shock: :o :lol:

Thanks for the advice all.

I'm off to put all the sharp cuttlery away.....

:twisted:

The idea of that is to make sure there's no moisture in it. Some people say you should fill the cases to the brim, and you even hear of people filling the pistons.

If you decide to cut corners, and just run it or ride it occasionally (that's what i had to do when I fractured my hip, didn't have the option of doing it right so I just sprayed it with WD40 and ran it occasionally) don't just run it for a few moments- that just causes unneeded wear and doesn't actually help much. You need to get it right up to operating temperature, which takes time. I was running mine on my abba stand in gear, just to avoid running it unloaded, and that seemed to work. It's not really good practice though, just necessity.

I'm not going to judge what other folk decide to do with thier bikes over winter. I'll be keeping mine running, but some ride purely as a summer weekend hobby, not for commuting or anything else. Then why spend money on winter gear, road tax, etc if you won't ride it? If it suits some folk to lay it up for winter thats fair enough in my book. Sounds like its a financial "got no choice" in this instance anyway.

Its to keep out the mice who'd just love to move into your lovely warm airbox!

Its because used oil can contain moisture and acids which can rot engine seals, not sure how many miles oil has to have done before this is an issue though. If you will lay it up every winter, change it now and by the end of next summer it'll be ready for it's next change.

Northy - can you shed any light on this one?

Not much :) I'd say it's probably for moisture, but I'm not too certain of that. Since I don't store mine, I've never really looked into it much- only time I did, I couldn't do anything for it anyway so it went all manky :(