A motorcycle put away badly costs more to recommission than it cost to store. The classic bill is a carburetor rebuild on every cylinder because a tank of pump fuel sat in there for five months, followed by a battery, followed by a set of tires that flat-spotted on the sidestand. All three are preventable in an afternoon.
Fuel, which is the expensive one
Modern pump fuel is the problem, and ethanol content makes it worse. It goes off, it absorbs water, it varnishes small passages, and it attacks the old rubber and fiber parts in a carburetor. On a bike with small jets, that varnish is what turns a running motorcycle into a bench job.
Do one of two things, deliberately.
Either fill the tank nearly full, add stabilizer at the correct dose, and run the engine long enough for treated fuel to reach and fill the carburetors or the fuel rail. A full tank reduces the air volume where condensation forms and where a steel tank starts to rust.
Or, on a carbureted bike being stored for a long stretch, drain the float bowls completely at the drain screws after running stabilized fuel through, so there is nothing left in there to varnish. Turn the fuel tap off. Both approaches work. The failure mode is doing neither, or adding stabilizer to the tank and never running the engine, which treats the tank and leaves the carburetors full of untreated fuel.
Oil, coolant and the rest of the fluids
Change the oil and filter before storage, not after. Used oil is acidic and it will sit against bearings and cam lobes for months. Fresh oil is cheap insurance and the bike is ready to ride in spring.
Check the coolant strength on a liquid-cooled bike and the brake and clutch fluid condition on everything. Brake fluid absorbs water from the air over time, so if it is dark, flush it now rather than discovering a spongy lever in March.
Lubricate the chain, and lubricate the controls and cables while you are there. A cable that dries out over winter and then sticks is a bad way to find out.
Battery, tires and the way it sits
Take the battery out or fit a proper maintainer. A lead-acid battery left connected through a cold winter sulfates and will not come back, and a lithium battery needs a charger that knows it is lithium.
Get the weight off the tires if you can. Both wheels on stands is ideal, the center stand is good, and the sidestand for five months is how you flat-spot a rear tire and stress the fork seals on one side. If the bike must sit on its tires, inflate them above normal pressure and roll it a few feet every few weeks.
Store it somewhere dry rather than somewhere warm. A cold, dry garage is far better than a warm, humid one, because condensation is the enemy, not temperature. Do not wrap the bike in a plastic tarp, which traps moisture against the metal. A breathable cover, or nothing at all in a dry space, is better.
Block the exhaust and the airbox intake against mice, and put a bright note on the bars to remind you. Clean the bike first, because road salt and bug residue left on aluminum and chrome over a winter etches in.
Waking it up
Go in order. Remove the plugs from the exhaust and intake before anything else, and check for nests in the airbox.
Refit the charged battery. Check tire pressures and look at the date codes and sidewalls, since a winter often reveals cracking that was not obvious in autumn. Check the chain tension and lubricate it again. Check every fluid level and the brake fluid color.
Squeeze the brake and clutch levers several times before you get on. Discs surface-rust over a winter and the first stop will feel wrong, which is normal for about a mile of gentle braking and not normal after that.
Turn on the fuel, let the bowls fill, and start it. If it will not start after a couple of honest attempts on an older carbureted bike, stop cranking and check for fuel at the bowls rather than flattening the battery. Let it warm up properly before you ride, and make the first ride a short local loop that tests the brakes and the gearbox before you commit to a real one.
Then book the season's service. The maintenance interval planner will tell you what is due.
Storage needs differ by bike, and two-strokes, older British twins and modern fuel-injected bikes each want something slightly different. Garage, Galley & Hangar writes a model-specific owner's reference manual for every motorcycle in the catalog, with the storage and service detail that model actually needs. Browse the motorcycles catalog.
