Best Practise bike storage long term ?

Hi All,

Interested to know what best practice would be for storing my 850 Commando for a approx 1 year ( possible working hoilday abroad ) .

In the winter the bike can go for a couple of months without been ridden with no issues at all ,fuel battery etc all fine , but a longer spell I'm not sure how to approach it .
The bike could go to my fathers who would keep it safe and roll it around his shed etc ,oh and polish it but would stuggle to ride it due to health and age .

Interested in your thoughts, Hendo

Hendo said:

Hi All,

Interested to know what best practice would be for storing my 850 Commando for a approx 1 year ( possible working hoilday abroad ) .

In the winter the bike can go for a couple of months without been ridden with no issues at all ,fuel battery etc all fine , but a longer spell I'm not sure how to approach it .
The bike could go to my fathers who would keep it safe and roll it around his shed etc ,oh and polish it but would stuggle to ride it due to health and age .

Interested in your thoughts, Hendo

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Depends a lot on where you store it and the weather in your area. For instance, in Virginia we will get a cold night and the fog in the morning. In an unheated/uninsulated garage that translates to everything being covered in condensation which makes things rust/corrode. Batteries other than Lithium don't do well in cold weather so take them inside if your space is not heated. Lots of people like gas additives for storage - I like a dry tank in a heated area. If you really want to be careful change the fluids. If you have chrome fenders, consider wiping with oil or using a rust preventative spray - if stainless then no need.

Whatever you do, don't wash it and then put it away without riding enough to be sure every nook and cranny is dry!

L.A.B. said:

Motorcycle Storage – VAC-BAG®

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The Vac Bag is what I use now . That and a XY2CTEM cover on top . In New Zealand I don't know if it goes well below freezing in winter . It sure does here in Toronto , so I pull the battery , take it inside and put it on an intelligent charger for winter storage . Must be nice to have a shed for storage , I've learned to use the street itself . Motorcycles park for free here as an incentive to switch from cars . I wonder how this thinking is relevant in a long cold Canadian winter ( coming up ) . I'll take your Dad's shed at the moment , Wait ! .. It's 10 ,000 Kms. away . Love travel . Enjoy .

L.A.B. said:

Motorcycle Storage – VAC-BAG®

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I think this is a good solution, but caveat: Do not bag a wet motorcycle or on a humid day. I bagged one that I needed to store outside. Big dummy me, I did it in August which is very humid in Virginia and I vacuumed out as much air as possible. Once it got cold outside, it basically rained inside the bag. Lots of damage!

They offer a "drysorb" - that's the ticket but it's not clear if it comes with one. If I were going to do it I would probably use at least one but probably all three they offer as a package.

Where you are in NZ is going to make a big difference. I have a mate who lives in the Waitakeres Hills in West Auckland and the damp out there in a unheated shed is horrible. It would be a lot of work to clean off but if I had to store a bike out there I'd get it perfectly dry and then spray with lanoline anti corrosion spray. If you can I'd put it in a garage attached to a house. Definitely drain tank and carbs. I'd spray wd40 or similar inside the tank and carbs. Remove battery.

Not sure about spraying anything down the cylinders. Maybe some one has experience with this?

Those fancy sealing covers sound good but I have heard you must get it perfectly dry first. Do they have packets of water absorbing chemical inside?

Getting it going again is also a thing. I'd change oil and filters and pour an egg cup full of oil down the push rod tunnels.

marshg246 said:

They offer a "drysorb" - that's the ticket but it's not clear if it comes with one.

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"The VAC-BAG motor bike storage system pack comes with one drisorb desiccant sachet plus instructions on how to use your Vac Bag."

Thank you for the replies,
I'm In Southland which does have temperature extremes Generally hard frosts in winter and snow will drop it down below 0 c reasonably regularly and cold wet windy conditions prevail ,in summer any where up to 30 c on occasions.... maybe not this yr with El nino !
I feel putting metal machinery in a bag with variable temperature fluctuations would still cause some condensation ?
I guess in a perfect world a temperature condrolled room would be ideal !

I stored mine for 30 years and it came out with very little damage. Thought I was only storing it for a year or so but ... well, things happen. It was in a draughty brick garage, with no heating in NW UK, about 5 miles from the sea.

- I covered everything in WD40 which dried to a hard varnish that took days to remove, you might want to choose something better. But definitely spray plenty of something over it.
- Plugs out, spray oil in the cylinders, plugs back in.
- Drain oil tank, petrol tank, carbs and primary drive
- Turn engine so that the valves are closed, I didn't do this and some were about 15mm shorter than they should be because the were left compressed for so long.
- Get a close fitting plastic bag or bike cover, something waterproof that you can seal up reasonably well round the bottom.
- Put in a few 500g bags of silica gel, I put 6 x 500g, dried them in an electric oven first, than placed them around the bike
- Inflate tyres much harder than normal so they don't flat-spot (this is a common car storage tip)
- Remove battery and either budget for a replacement or put it on an intelligent charger, not one of those that just keeps pushing in electricity until all the acid boils away. I like the c-tek range

The only corrosion I suffered was one of the silencers which had been damaged before storage. After storage it was damaged and rusted through.

The only other damage was to my clutch lever and fuel tank because someone dropped the bike when trying to get to something stored behind it. So choose your storage location carefully.

....and, for sure don't put away a bike until it has reached full operating temp. Otherwise there will be moisture in the
mufflers (silencers) and they will rust/rot away if any moisture is still in them.

Thanks Guy's for the input, many great suggestions

A few additional thoughts which may or may not be relevant to your situation.
Drain oil tank to avoid sumping.
Squirt a little oil in each spark plug hole.
Wash the bike and dry thoroughly before you put it away.
Remove any salt deposits from bike, as they will pull moisture from the air and create a corrosion cell.
Fluidfilm, a lanolin based spray, creates a good anti-corrosion barrier. Doesn't harden and cleans up well.
Kick the engine over every few months. Keeps the rings from mating with the cylinder walls and may leave the valves and springs in a new resting position.
A cover will keep dust etc off the bike.
If you are storing the bike in a cool location, a low wattage air circulator under the bike will reduce condensation from temperature swings. See below for an example.
If you have a smart charger leave the battery on charge for the duration. Best to remove the battery from the bike as the zener is a dumb regulating device and will never let the battery get to full charge, unless you pull the fuse.

A vac bag does take up a LOT of space.

IMO: drain the fuel or treat it. Over fill the tyres to keep ’em round and allow for gradual loss. Lather the thing in copious amounts of a good surface protector (one that will protect and also be easy to wash off when you want to) and use a cheap electric radiator to keep the chill off in the shed and stop the temperature swings and subsequent condensation issues.

I should do many of the things above but in reality I do nothing, other than make sure the bikes are full of reasonably fresh ethanol free fuel. If the fuel gets to be a couple of years old I will drain it and fill with fresh then run the bike until the fresh fuel is in the carbs. The old fuel gets used up in the lawnmower, poor thing.

The storage area is insulated but generally unheated. Once in awhile I open the doors from the smaller shop and let the heat from the woodstove find its way out into the larger shop where the bikes are stored.
I haven't had any problems with oxidation yet and some of the bikes have been in there for 20 years or so. They do get used during most riding seasons, although the dirt bikes have sat unused for a few years now.

This reminds me that there are a few leaks in the metal roof. We have sunshine today so I must go up there to fix them. This is a regular occurrence with a metal roof of the type with through fasteners.

Glen

Thanks for the replies,

One other option I did think of was allowing the the bike to go to a trusted friend who understands older bikes and would keep it riding etc etc.......but that might be like giving away my first born child !

Cheers Hendo

I dont drain the oil, I let it sump and drain it before starting. Figure that it keeps things lubricated in the lower end. I dont drain the tank but treat the fuel. Non ethanol fuel is not available here. If it sits long, I drain the fuel and use it in the mower, fill it with fresh. Is it better to drain and leave it dry? Rust concerns?

My commando lived in insulated shed ,R-40 with electric heat set to hold at 15C , I gave bike a good cleaning & wax , treated full fuel tank & changed the oil, connected battery to smart maintainer …. never an issue during 23 yrs , the various Ducati & Moto Guzzi were treated same, never an issue with any of those fussy Italians either , I did wipe bikes down once in while with microfibre cloth , that’s it …. Should mention I’m in Nova Scotia we get a nasty winter with regular deep freezes followed by thaws , plus everything that can fall from sky does ….

MikeM said:

Non ethanol fuel is not available here.

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Sure it is. Mix a gallon of water with three gallons of fuel, shake, let the water bond to the ethanol and settle, and then pour (or better, siphon) the now ethanol-free gas from the top. Using a clear container (I use an old plastic five-gallon watercooler bottle) the line of demarcation between the gas and water layers is quite clear.

Add fuel stabilizer and fill your tank. Note, removing the alcohol will lower the octane somewhat, so I usually go up a grade (to 89 or 91, US standard) when I do this.

Plenty of videos on youtube illustrating the method if the above isn't clear.

Good luck.

Put that corn water back in the ground it came from!

Glen