[jazzmin_t]

I'm located up in Canada, and although it's not too cold yet, I want to start getting prepared for winterizing my bike. My R3 is my first bike and this will be my first time storing it for the winter. Anyone have some good tips on what needs to be done?

I only have about 300km AKA 185 miles on the bike so I was wondering if there was potentially a shorter "to-do" list than everything I've found on Google. Also, it seems like certain "winterizing" lists cover absolutely everything for every style of bike. Does anyone have a to-do list that they personally use?

So far, I know I've got to buy a cover, front/rear stands, fuel stabilizer and some new oil. Am I missing anything?

 

[Yamamama]

How long do you expect to store it? That far south in Canada, don't you get warm days every now and then through the winter? Most of that stuff is overkill for a bike that will be stored for less than six months, let alone for just a few weeks.

I definitely would NOT put a cover on it unless your garage is heated. Those things just trap moisture when the temperature changes. If you need to protect it from mice, rubber-band a plastic bag over the exhaust outlet and remove both seats.

Disconnect the battery. Top up the fuel. Put it on the rear stand. Lube the chain. Wipe down the fork tubes and any other unpainted steel parts with WD40 (except the brake rotors, but I didn't need to tell you that. ). If it's getting close to due for an oil change I'll go ahead and do it. But since you'll just have done your break-in oil change, I wouldn't bother. That's all I ever do.

 

[Stirz]

In general, I'd offer the following:

Make sure coolant is topped off, or drain it all out (not required, but an option).
Put the battery on a tender
Add fuel stabilizer
Every few weeks, go out to the storage-type place and pump the forks a few times - this helps to avoid 'winter weep', which can happen if the seals are cold and not exercised periodically (they tend to get stiff in cold weather and sometimes will develop a 'weep' of fork oil).
An end of year oil change is good too.

 

[jazzmin_t]

If only the winter in Toronto was a couple weeks... sadly, it's generally from the months of November to March. The warm days during Toronto winters are just days with the sun out. Our temperatures average -15C or 5F with a lot of snow and slush. Most bike dealerships offer winter storage for $300+ from Oct to April but I don't think I'll need to store the bike that early so I'm not going to opt for that, considering I can probably do it on my own.

I'll be putting the bike in my detached garage, so it won't be heated. I'm not afraid of mice, but I don't want the bike to gather dust and dirty considering the garage will also be holding two cars that will be coming in and out.

At 300km, do you think it's due for an oil change? I'd still consider the bike really new, so I don't want to unnecessarily change the oil if it's not necessary.

 

[Yamamama]

At 300km, do you think it's due for an oil change?

No - though if you haven't done your break-in oil change before you put it away, I probably would go ahead and do that (but then also do your next oil change early). I was assuming you'll hit 1,000 km or very near before putting it away, won't you? Isn't your first snow still three or four weeks away at the earliest?

I've been putting bikes up for the season for a long time and I've never done anything more than what I listed (plus draining the float bowls, but the R3 is fuel injected). The only problems I've ever had are (1) once when I unexpectedly had to leave a bike for a year and a half without prepping it, the carburetors got pretty gummy, but nothing a bunch of fuel system cleaner wouldn't fix, and (2) I killed two batteries in bikes that I'd put up for the summer by forgetting to disconnect them - the combination of the heat and the modern electronics drained them beyond reviving. Other than that - zero problems, and the bike's available to ride any time I happen to want it, just put the battery on the charger, button it up and go.

 

[Rich89]

I'm in the GTA, and yeah like he said November to March is usually a no go for riding unfortunately. For my bikes all I've usually done is fresh oil, lube the chain, full tank of gas with stabilizer, up on stands (or just rotate the tires every so often if no stand), and pulled the battery and kept it on a battery tender.
I got my R3 late in the season and I figure I'll only have around 500k when I put it away but I'm still going to do the oil. It's cheap, easy to do, and it wont hurt that's for sure.

 

[t-rav_12]

Jazzy, one thing I didn't see mention of yet is to be sure you run the bike with the fuel stabilizer in it so it gets worked through your fuel system. Otherwise, these guys have you pretty well lined out. If you don't have stands, be sure to roll the bike rearward or forward to put the wheel bearings in a different position and steer the bike as well to put the steering bearings in a different position. I learned the hard way about not changing the steering position. Came back to ride my bike and the steering bearings were messed up.
Danged ol' gravity...

 

[chelina]

Jazzy, one thing I didn't see mention of yet is to be sure you run the bike with the fuel stabilizer in it so it gets worked through your fuel system. Otherwise, these guys have you pretty well lined out. If you don't have stands, be sure to roll the bike rearward or forward to put the wheel bearings in a different position and steer the bike as well to put the steering bearings in a different position. I learned the hard way about not changing the steering position. Came back to ride my bike and the steering bearings were messed up.
Danged ol' gravity...

1. Anyone pull the plugs and line the cylinders with fogging spray? Took a maintenance class recently on bikes and they were pretty adamant this is an important safeguard.

2. If the both the front & rear are up on stands, should you still periodically 'steer' the bike to make sure the head bearings aren't sitting in one position for an extended period. First time I've heard/read this advice.

 

[supamike]

Jazzy, one thing I didn't see mention of yet is to be sure you run the bike with the fuel stabilizer in it so it gets worked through your fuel system. Otherwise, these guys have you pretty well lined out. If you don't have stands, be sure to roll the bike rearward or...

When yoiu say Run the bike, do you mean just turn it on and let it sit in neutral? or put it in gear?
if to put in gear, is 1st good enough or higher?

and do i need to ride it or can i just pop it up on the rear stand and safely let it run in gear?

Part 2 -
does the fuel type matter? I had read some article about saying to us Gas no alcohol (oxygenate) in it.
no idea what that is.

lastly , it read on to say you can do feul stabalizer or d drain all of the gas out of the tank and spray some gas soluble oil on the inside of the tank to keep it from rusting.

any thoughts on the drain approach , Pros/cons?

 

[tlyrider]

R3 Oil change for winterization

Hey nice read. I planned to do that as well and took the first step of cleaning and changing oil. It was painful to remove the oil filter and I have recorded my experience with oil change here under my youtube channel NIKSProjects
I was able to remove the factory tightened oil filter using Channellock 209 oil filter plier.

 

[supamike]

The owners mamual mentions for long term storage , as in winterizing, a step for doing something with the spark plugs to protect the cyclinders/pistons, etc:
- remove spark plugs, pout teaspoon of engine oil into bore, turn the engine over....

I been looking through various also youtube videos on winterizing -- i think this step alternate would be using a fogging oil as well.

I was wondering, is this step critical? ?

i found a thread on here on removing spark plugs and it invovles actually taking the tank out , disconnecting feul line..etc.. just to get to the spark plug housig.... ??

this seems to be quite invovled, and I wondered.
1. is this a step folks are doing and is advisable, critical or neccessary?
2. how do you get to the spark plugs?
3. which is best, engine oil or fogging oil?

 

[bimmereddy]

As a part of winterizing it.. i did remove battery and today i wanted to put it back for a spin and i put it wrong way.. now it wont turn ON i checked fuses they dont look burnt.. whats wrong with it? Please suggest what to do next

Sent from my SM-N950W using Tapatalk

 

[BluebirdR3]

Did you check the battery voltage? Even if it was taken out, lead acid batteries can lose charge just sitting there.