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Winter is almost here for those of us in the Northern climates. What does everyone do to get their bikes ready for hibernation?

In California we don't need it, but when I lived in Midwest, I would put some Stabil fuel stabilizer in the tank, run bike for 2 min or so to get it through the fuel system. Then I would change oil, take out battery (if you have one), put a tea spoon of motor oil in the cylinder (through a sparkplug hole). I would also place the bike on a stand to keep both wheels off the ground. Cover it with breathable cover and you are generally good to go. Hope it helps. Dan

I think Dan is spot-on with his advice.

Also I try to fill the tank up with gas in addition to adding Sta-bil, in order to mitigate rust formation on metal that would otherwise not be submerged under gasoline if I did not have a full tank. Maybe you don't need to fill the tank with Sta-bil in the there. Let's see what others think.

This could be an old-wive's tale but I have heard that Sta-bil is corrosive to paint, so just be careful when pouring it in the tank.

Trickle charge the battery once a month if you think of it. If it looses its charge it is subject to freezing (depending on how cold your garage gets.)

I find it hard to keep both tires in the air (impossible really) so I put the bike on the centerstand which elevates one tire and once in a great while when I think of it I rotate the other tire slightly to change the contact patch of the tire that is in contact with the floor. I think the theory behind elevating the tires is to keep the tires from getting flat spots.

Beyond that I might wash the bike and put paste wax on the body parts, but not wipe the wax off. In the spring the wax will be dried out and will come off easily. I spray all the metal parts with WD-40. I also squirt a bunch of WD-40 down the taillpipe because I think that will displace any moisture that may condense in the bottom of the muffler which might otherwide rust from the inside out. In the spring the bike will smoke from the engine and muffler and such as the WD-40 burns off, but that only lasts for five to ten minutes.

I suppose it would be good to clean the chain a little and spray a little chain wax on it too.

The above advice is "in a perfect world" type stuff, I don't always get around to doing everything I should.

If you have an old dumb trickle charger like me, you might consider getting one of those addapters that had a male and female lightbulb socket and a 110 socket. screw it into your garage opener light and then screw the bulb into it. plug an extension cord into the socket and route it to your trickler and battery. then every time you open and close your garage you will get a timed trickle of around 10 minutes. should balance out over the course of a winter.

Good ideas! This will be first winter with the Duc, but I also plan to fog the motor- run it out of fuel at a fast idle while spraying WD-40 into the carb. This helps stop corrosion on the cyl, valves, rings, etc.