Tips To Store Your Motorcycle Away
For motorcycle enthusiasts, it is important to properly store their bike when they are not riding. Taking appropriate steps to store the motorcycle ensures its longevity and maintains optimal performance. It makes all the difference between a quick start up to an extensive rusting and accelerated wear and tear. In this articlef, we break down how to properly store your motorcycle away.
Now you’re probably wondering why you would want to store your bike away. And you’re probably right to raise that question. The simple answer is, weather. Some parts of India get extreme monsoons which makes riding dangerous, uncomfortable and could potentially damage electronics and other components on your motorcycle. So your best option is to store your bike away for a few months until things clear up. However, just parking your bike somewhere wont do any good,in fact it could make things a lot worse. So to help you out we’ve come up with a checklist to guide you though this boring process.
How To Store Your Motorcycle Away
Storing the bike away
First up, make sure you wash your bike down to get rid of any dirt that could cause corrosion. Salts in mud could accelerate wear on metallic surfaces, so you want to make sure your bike is spotless. Additionally you could apply wax like Putoline RS1 wax on metallic surfaces and Putoline Matt wax on plastics and fibers to prevent dulling. You could also use WD40 to wipe down chrome surfaces like forks and crash guards to protect against corrosion. Of course lubing and cleaning your chain is definitely recommended, you can check out more about that in a blow we did earlier by clicking here. It’s definitely recommended to apply a decent amount of lube if you live in a coastal area to prevent rusting.
Placing your bike on a center stand or paddock is definitely advised in avoiding flat spots. As well as ensuring that they are inflated to the right pressure to avoid any kind of added stress on the walls of the tyre.
Lastly, making sure you cover your bike with something synthetic and breathable will ensure moisture doesn’t get trapped inside which ultimately prevents build up of mildew and rust. According to our expert riders, R&G and Polyvault bike covers, manufacture some of the best motorcycle covers out there. The breathability, aesthetics and functionality is undeniably good.
Battery
Often overlooked by many riders is the battery. Doing a few easy steps can save you the trouble of having to replace your battery prematurely. Most modern day motorcycles come with a lead acid battery as stock OEM. And these batteries have the unfortunate characteristic of self discharging. These batteries left unused develop sulfation which damages the battery.
Your best way out of this is by hooking your battery up to a maintainer or smart battery charger to prevent sulfation. It is important to note that if you’re using a regular battery charger, it does not turn off when the battery is full and this leads to overcharging which is hazardous. You do have another option,that is swapping your heavy lead acid battery for a lightweight lithium battery. These batteries have an extremely low discharge rate. All you really have to do is disconnect the negative terminal. However, the down side is these batteries are rather expensive and can not be revived after the voltage drops below a certain limit.
Fuel tank
Your primary focus should be on what is in your tank. A rusty tank will cause you tremendous issues like a damaged fuel pump, clogged lines, and damaged injectors, which are all expensive to replace. Fuel today has a mix of ethanol which is hygroscopic which means it’ll pull moisture out of the air into the tank which will cause extensive rusting.
If you have a carbureted motorcycle, you can simply drain your carburetor and tank and store your bike dry; however, if you have a fuel injected bike there’s no easy way to get all the petrol out of your bike. So, your best way out is to do the opposite and fill the tank up to the brim and add a fuel stabilizer like putoline in the correct amount. You’d then need to start the bike and run it for a few minutes to run the treated fuel through the system. Having your tank filled to the brim means the bear metal in the tank is left completely submerged and so rusting is prevented with the lack of air.
Wiring and Circuitry
Now in 10 mins you have already protected your battery and fuel system of your bike. And as a good motorcyclist you already know that not all you need to do. Your next step would be to spray some sort of insect and rat repellent around and on your bike to prevent any unwanted guests. Our experienced riders found sprinkling tobacco and naphthalene balls to be especially useful in repelling rats; however, there are other specific products out there to repel pests.
Lubrication
Now since you are storing your bike away and it’s not going to be used, it might be a good idea to give all the bolts, switches, chain and joint a good spray of WD40. This prevents rusting and from elements getting stuck.
And there you have it, with just a few things you’ve made sure your bike is ready for you when the riding season starts. You’ve made sure you have no need for you to fret about skyrocketing service bills and rusted out elements. Anything beyond the points we listed out above, would be rather unnecessary however, we would highly recommend it since it would make waking up your bike so much more simpler.
How to Buy Tools and Sprays to Protect Your Motorcycle on Custom Elements?
Planning on bedding down your bike for a few months? No sweat! On custom Elements, we’ve got all kinds of tools, sprays and a lot more accessories for your motorcycle. You can find a wide range of motorcycle covers from R&G and Polyvault, and an abundance of sprays from Putoline and Mucoff on our webstore. To assist you in shortlisting the perfect model for you we have a few search filters on the website that you can use to zero in on a specific model. After picking the right model for you, proceed to the check-out page. Using Snapmint Easy EMI you might be eligible for exciting offers and discounts.
Disclaimer: The views & opinions put forward in this blog are purely from a personal perspective of the author & do not represent the opinions of any entity whatsoever.
