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No!

Starting it few times while in off season letting it idle never reaching full op temp or not at full op temp long enough mostly idling results in carboning up the plugs & combustion chambers along with causing additional moisture buildup in crankcase including in the oil too.

So just prior to storing the bike buy some marine grade sta-bil.

Then go to local gas station and add approx 1.5 oz marine grade stable to a full tank of 6 gals fuel.

Now ride approx 10 miles to ensure treated fuel gets thru entire fuel system by the time you get home & shut the bike down.

Then if your leaving the battery in the bike still hooked up during storage put the float charger on the battery till it shows fully charged and charger has gone to float mode & cover the bike if thats what you do.

Remove the charger soon after that or a max of 24hrs so that way your starting off season storage with a fully charged battery.

Then after that put the float charger on the battery 1x every 1.5-2wks till it shows fully charged and charger has gone to float mode and remove it shortly after that within 24hrs max to avoid any premature damage to the battery due to possibly over charging it.

But if you remove the battery from the bike for off season storage so it has no load on it like alarm ,ecm etc & stored in a warmer dry area then all you have to do is put the float charger on it 1x every 2.5-3wks along with doing what i suggest directly above as far a when to remove it go's.

Removing the float charger shortly after battery reaches full charge is esp an issue for an AGM battery because by design it has considerably less electrolite /acid in it.

That makes the AGM battery more sensitive to overcharging & or drying out the plates possibly leading to premature failure vs older std type lead acid battery design that has considerably more electrolight/acid in it making the old school std battery design considerably less sensitive to over charging then AGM design battery because old school lead acid had more fluid to begin with.

And older design lead acid batteries also having better access to removing filler caps to chk & refill as required with dist water to avoid drying the plates out which isnt always possible or easily done on the AVG maint free fact act AGM bike battery.

Scott

 

do not start it... it does no good it will only make you feel bad when the snow is on the ground and the Chill eastern winds are blowing... just plug it in to a battery tender and cover it...Also i would suggest using "Stabil 360" especially during winter. it has a vapor action that coats everything in the fuel line above and below the fuel level
i also use it every other fill up during the summer when i can.

 

As mentioned, don't start it unless you intend to ride it. In the cold it's just a way to get moisture into the engine. Store with the tank absolutely full, with stabilizer in the fuel. I leave the battery tender on it for the whole winter. Haven't had any issues to this point. Fresh oil before you put it away is a really good idea.

 

Here's how I "elevate" my bike during the cold storage of winter...
Put a piece of 2" pink or blue styrofoam under each tire, then use a small
piece of 2" x 4" lumber under the sidestand to compensate for height/angle of bike. This keeps the tires from setting on the cold hard floor and developing
'flat spots' while in storage.

 

I guess it's unanimous. Once you shut her down, that's it.

 

Yup, me too. Full tank of gas, Stabil, battery tender, and leave it alone unless you get out on a nice day for a ride.

 

you want a cover that can breathe- don;t trap moisture against the bike

that's why we say sheets

Mike

 

my cover is like a sheet.....rain water is repelled not water proof.

 

No to start.

 

Some of us don't have to worry about that shyt. The only break bikes get in FL is for maintenance!