Winterizing

Can anybody give me some tips on storing my bike for the winter.
Like what is better fuel stabilizer, or some like seafoam, is it better to just drain my gas. Is it better to change my oil now o wait to spring. Do I put any oil in the cylinders? Any suggestions would would be greatly appreciated.

 

Preferably drain gas and put some light oil in the gas tank, swish it around a few times and that's good.

Spoon some clean motor oil into each cylinder and crank a little (obviously with no plug wires connected).

You can just leave the oil in there.

Lastly, I like to cover ALL openings with plugs or bags or something, ie. intake, exhaust, vents, etc.

 

Take a look here

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... izing.html

There are several other recent discussions also

 

Thanks for all of the advice. I do have on question I see everybody says to put oil in the spark plug holes and then turn the motor over. I read Not to try and start the motor with the plugs out because it could short out the coils. Is this true, is there another way of cranking the motor over?

 

Remove the left engine cover, use a wrench to turn the 'bolt'. That is your crankshaft. The reason it is done with out the plugs is to make it easier to turn (no compression w/o the plugs).

 

You won't damage the motor or the coils turning it over 2-3 revolutions with the spark plugs out. Or you can leave the plugs out and put it in 4th gear and turn the back wheel or use the method outlined above. TIP: If you leave the plugs loose (screwed in but not torqued) or didn't fill the oil all the way, or anything else you might forget over the winter, write yourself a note and tape it to the tach. That way you won't miss it when you go to start the bike in the spring.

 

LEAVE FUEL IN THE TANK. WITH A FUEL STABILIZER(I DONT ENDORSE ANY BRAND, IM IN TEXAS)
RUST WILL BE BAD W/ NO FUEL IN TANK
DRAIN THE CARB BOWLS INSTEAD