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Winter is coming…and if you live in the frost belt area of the world, you’ll need to winterize your motorcycle or scooter.
But if you’re brand new to the two-wheeler world, perhaps you’re unsure why you need to do this. And if you are, this is the episode for you.
Tune in to discover:
- What “winterizing” actually means – and what it does NOT mean
- The two most common reasons why you should winterize your motorcycle or scooter
- How much winterizing tends to costs
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to another episode of 30-minute motorcycling – a podcast for those riders who are at the beginning of their own Dual Wheel Journey, where you’ll discover something new about how your motorcycle, moped, or scooter works – in less than 30 minutes.
Unless you live in a country where it’s warm all year round, there comes a time when it’s time to “winterize” your motorcycle.
While we’re saving the actual process of how to winterize your bike for a future episode, if you’re brand new to motorcycles and two-wheelers, perhaps you’re not sure about what winterizing a motorcycle means.
But first, we’ll have to cover what winterizing ISN’T.
It’s a little embarrassing for me to admit this, but the first time I heard the term, I thought that it meant that you just had to put on some snow chains, a pair of winter tires, and maybe add a couple of hand warmers for your handlebars.
Well, it isn’t.
So now that we’ve established what winterizing ISN’T – let’s talk about what it IS.
As I mentioned in the intro, if you live in a country where the temperatures drop to freezingly cold during the winter, there comes a time when you have to put away your motorcycle for long-term storage – which can last as long as 4 months.
Some might still decide to ride, but for the most part, many people put away their bikes as winter rolls in.
Typically, you winterize your bike around October or November, just before winter arrives. After all, the term “winterizing” sort of gives everything away.
But with that in mind, it can also be done during any time of the year if you know that you’re not going to ride your bike for months – like, say if you’re going to go on a military tour of duty overseas for months – just as an example.
To summarize – winterizing a motorcycle is like putting it into hibernation.
And if you’re more of a scooter rider, you should know that the same thing applies to scooters as well.
In fact, if you’re interested, I’ve included a link to an article on ScootersforNewbies.com that includes a helpful 7-step checklist that specifically deals with winterizing scooters.
So that’s what winterizing is – but why do you need to do it in the first place?
There are several reasons why, but the two most common ones are that it prevents the fuel from going bad and the battery from draining.
If your fuel sits unused for about 30 days or even longer, the octane rating will drop, which causes a phenomenon known as “bad fuel.”
And obviously, this fuel is bad – specifically, it’s bad to run through your bike’s engine, as it causes severe damage to and
With the battery, it’s a similar sort of thing, except that in this case, if it sits unused for too long, the charge inside it is will drain until the battery is completely dead.
For more information about motorcycle batteries, please check out episode 50 of the 30-Minute Motorcycling podcast.
Anyway, there are many more reasons why you should winterize your motorcycle, but for the sake of brevity, fuel and battery are the most important ones.
So, what’s all this going to cost? There are 3 main costs of winterizing a motorcycle:
1: Storage space rental
2: A synthetic motorcycle cover and
3: A paddock stand.
Of course, if you have a garage – congratulations, you don’t need to pay for a storage space. And if your bike has a center stand, even better – you don’t need to get the paddock stand – just bring the bike up using the center stand.
If you do have to pay for storage space, the rental cost is usually between $150-$200 for 5 months of storage – of course, the price may vary depending on where you live.
A synthetic motorcycle cover, on the other hand, is dirt cheap by comparison – only between $30-$120 – please remember, however, that the more expensive covers are mostly for larger touring-style motorcycles.
Finally, a paddock stand is about $40-$80.
And that’s what winterizing a motorcycle is, the 2 most common reasons why, and what it costs to do it.
I hope you enjoyed listening, and above all, that you discovered something new.
Until next time, keep your helmet on and your eyes on the road. Bye!
