I stupidly figured I could get by without a battery maintainer over the winter and that instead I would simply start up my bike every two weeks to get the fuel flowing and charge up the battery.
Ya ya, boy was I wrong.
See, where I live, it doesn't generally snow (maybe 1 or 2 days a year), so we can ride 10 to 11 months out of the year (it almost never goes below freezing, so some people ride all year). My plates expired in Nov, so I figured I wouldn't bother draining the fluids or anything and just let it run every 2 weeks and maybe even ride it around the block.
Well, the first few times it was fine starting up, but after a month it was getting harder and harder to get it started. I figured it was the cold weather (between 2 and 5 degrees C). By the middle of December, I was having to roll start it to get it going.
Early in Jan, I renewed my plates, but every morning I had to roll start it (I live on a hill) and after the biked cooled off, I would again have to push start it to get it going. It became very frustrating and I started looking online at what the problem could be.
Since it ran perfectly fine once started, I figured maybe the valve clearance was off (possible cold start issue). Since I had never checked it before, I figured it was a shot. When I was at a shop picking up a new valve cover gasket, the mechanic mentioned that my battery sounded really weak. I told him my "winter storage plan" and he told me I probably killed my battery since it would never really charge even with 30 minutes of idling.
I then had the battery checked, but it came back "good". Just in case, I picked up a battery maintainer from Princess Auto for $25 and started plugging it in at night. I really should have just picked one of these up in the first place.
Despite having a fully charged battery, I still couldn't get it to start in the morning without push/roll starting it.
After more reading, I decided I should swap out the spark plugs before doing the valve clearance check (just in case). I had already checked them and they seemed OK.
Well, apparently they were not, because after dropping in new plugs, the bike started instantly (and has started without problem every time since).
***
What I can figure, by only letting my bike run for 30 minutes every two weeks, it was never fully getting warmed up. The battery was never charging up and eventually my plugs got fowled up.
I didn't think it would be the spark plugs since I was able to see a spark when grounded to the engine and they appeared to work fine once the bike was running. I guess that's what I get for making assumptions.
Anyway, don't be like me (stupid), follow a proper winter storage procedure and avoid the heartache.
TrueG
Ya ya, boy was I wrong.
See, where I live, it doesn't generally snow (maybe 1 or 2 days a year), so we can ride 10 to 11 months out of the year (it almost never goes below freezing, so some people ride all year). My plates expired in Nov, so I figured I wouldn't bother draining the fluids or anything and just let it run every 2 weeks and maybe even ride it around the block.
Well, the first few times it was fine starting up, but after a month it was getting harder and harder to get it started. I figured it was the cold weather (between 2 and 5 degrees C). By the middle of December, I was having to roll start it to get it going.
Early in Jan, I renewed my plates, but every morning I had to roll start it (I live on a hill) and after the biked cooled off, I would again have to push start it to get it going. It became very frustrating and I started looking online at what the problem could be.
Since it ran perfectly fine once started, I figured maybe the valve clearance was off (possible cold start issue). Since I had never checked it before, I figured it was a shot. When I was at a shop picking up a new valve cover gasket, the mechanic mentioned that my battery sounded really weak. I told him my "winter storage plan" and he told me I probably killed my battery since it would never really charge even with 30 minutes of idling.
I then had the battery checked, but it came back "good". Just in case, I picked up a battery maintainer from Princess Auto for $25 and started plugging it in at night. I really should have just picked one of these up in the first place.
Despite having a fully charged battery, I still couldn't get it to start in the morning without push/roll starting it.
After more reading, I decided I should swap out the spark plugs before doing the valve clearance check (just in case). I had already checked them and they seemed OK.
Well, apparently they were not, because after dropping in new plugs, the bike started instantly (and has started without problem every time since).
***
What I can figure, by only letting my bike run for 30 minutes every two weeks, it was never fully getting warmed up. The battery was never charging up and eventually my plugs got fowled up.
I didn't think it would be the spark plugs since I was able to see a spark when grounded to the engine and they appeared to work fine once the bike was running. I guess that's what I get for making assumptions.
Anyway, don't be like me (stupid), follow a proper winter storage procedure and avoid the heartache.
TrueG
