How to : "Winterize" your Chopper?

If you don’t winterize your motorcycle, a number of possible things could happen to your bike by the time spring arrives. Such things may include deposits developed in the gas and fuel system, sludged oil, a brittle belt, cracked and flat tires, a frozen and/or dead battery, and deposits developed in the cooling system. 

When winterizing your chopper one of the first things you want to consider is the location where your bike will be stored. An indoor temperature-controlled place is the best possible spot to store a motorcycle. It cuts out the problems you may face when your bike is exposed to long periods of cold temperatures and humidity.         

However, not everybody has the luxury of a heated garage at their disposal, especially people living in cities. A shed or simply a roof is always better than leaving it out in your backyard or on the street, but if you have no other option make sure to dismantle your seat and battery and take those inside. This will prevent your battery from freezing or dying and prevent your seat from cracking up and losing flexibility.

If you properly prepare your bike for winter, you’ll have a bike that will run nice and smoothly in those early spring days or even on a nice winter day. To start your preparation, take your bike for one last ride. When it gets colder most riders don’t ride that often anymore and there will be some water and contaminants in the oil.         

The heat caused by riding your chopper will help to get rid of some of that water. It also makes your chain hot which makes lubricating it easier which is something you also want to do before storing your chopper.

Now you got back from your last ride the next step will be preparing your fuel. There are a couple of ways to do this, some people like to drain their tank and carbs to ensure nothing is left in the fuel system to gum up the carbs.  

However a lot of bikes these days are fuel injected and this makes it harder to drain the fuel system entirely. The other way of preparing your fuel is the complete opposite which is filling your tank up completely. What this does is it gets rid of any airspace within the tank, and because of the fuel vapor building up in the tank it prevents water from forming. Water and oxygen are the main cause of fuel becoming bad and gummy.          

However modern fuels contain a lot of ethanol which separated into its component parts if left for to long. this makes your tank dirty and to avoid this you will need to treat your fuel. After treating your fuel run your bike for a moment to get that treated fuel through the whole fuel system. A side note for those hardcore riders who ride sometimes in the winter is to have a spare can of treated fuel so that when you get back you can fill your tank up again.

When your chain is still warm lubricate it with chain lubricant, because when the chain is still warm it gets the lube between all the tight spaces it needs to be such as the plates, O-rings and the rollers making the lube more effective.

The reason for doing this is to protect it from salt during winter and from rust. Another thing that won’t hurt your beloved chopper is draining all the fluids out and replacing them. these fluids include engine oil, transmission, and other primary fluids. These fluids can get mixed with water, moisture an all kinds of gross stuff which in the long run can decrease your choppers life expectancy.

Now if you live in an area where temperatures can get extremely low you might want to consider fogging your cylinders although you can always do this when you store your bike for long periods of time.

In order to do this, remove a sparkplug and spray some fogging oil through the hole into the cylinders. Fogging oil is a verry heavy anticorrosive lubricant that will protect the internal surfaces of the carburetor and the cylinders. For those of you who are on a tight budged you can almost get the same result using just a couple teaspoons of motor oil.

If you are a person who wants their chopper in tip top shape 24/7 you can always wash and wax your bike before storing it away. During those long riding hours dirt, grease or other types of filth will stick to the surface and paint of your chopper.

This damages the finish of the paint, chrome or aluminum parts resulting in those parts losing their shininess. The optimal way you would want to do this is by using a specific bike wash or soap, this will get rid of all that dirt and won’t be hard on the finishes.

Make sure you dry all the washed parts so that you don’t trap any moisture while waxing. The wax is just an extra protective layer to make sure when you get back to riding your chopper in the spring it looks brand new.

Last but not least a handy thing you can do for your seat is using some sort of leather protective product to give your seat a nice winter coat to keep you it from wearing out faster.