So it is now officially cold as hell here for the first time this year. I go out to the garage to work on the bike a little bit and fire up the heater. As would be expected, heating up the garage causes condensation on the motorcycle. I mean I guess i don't get worried about it when it gets rained on, but is this a bad idea to have this happen regularly throughout the winter?

 

Same thing happens in my garage too! Must be damned conspiracy around these parts! I've got one of those Stanley floor fans that I bought years ago from Menards. I just set it up on something and point it at the bike while the garage is warming up. Having some air blowing over the cold metal parts does a pretty good job of keeping the condensation to a minimum. Give it a shot and see if it works good for you too.

 

The heat in your garage isn't causing it. The condensation is already on and in the bike. Same thing when you fire-up the car and water drips from the exhaust. As it gets cold the moisture in the air, in your exhaust, engine, etc freezes. So when you crank it up or turn on the heat you're seeing it melt. That's why I fire-up my bikes weekly to burn out that moisture.

Anyhooo...no worries. The moisture is already on the bike, cranking up the heat just causes it to come out of the porous materials.

 

I'd imagine that moisture is unavoidable.

 

I always keep a small fan blowing on the low setting any time my bike is in the shop, whether its hot or cold outside. It keeps the condensation from accumulating. Rust sucks!

 

just wipe down the chrome/metal areas when your done. A buddy and I used to work out in his garage same set up , everything would have a fine rust on it, so will your bike if you dont wipe the moisture off....

 

Only fix is to heat the garage. I have a 30'x48'x10' insulated and drywalled, heated man cave and keep the temp at 45* when I'm not in it. Come spring and a 70* day open the roll up door and if I hadn't been working in there with the heat turned up to 65-70* same thing happens....condensation. I still say heat it if you can. I bought a Reznor upper 80% efficient unit heater 12 years ago when I built the cave, fueled by propane...cost me average $350-400 a winter to heat it here in lower Michgan and I'm in there a lot at 70*. HD, bass boat, Haulmark trailer and tools like the warm air...I like how my toys look.

 

A friend of mine made himself a 2 x 4 wooden frame. Put a sheet of that 1" rigid foam board on the floor. Drove the bike up on top and made sure to use a scrap of wood under the kick stand. Then covered the 2 x 4 wood frame with additional sheets of the rigid board. So basically a box big enough to have the bike inside made out of 1" foam board. Kept a 100 watt light bulb going inside. This thing is in his unheated pole barn. Checked on it several times over the winter and no condensation at all. Come spring no rust or anything. Ready to ride. Very little cost. If I did not have a heated garage for my limited and the wife's Tri Glide I would build something similar. Easy to take apart come spring for summer storage.

 

Not trying to highjack this post or embarrass anyone here but starting your bike and letting it idle for few a minutes when it's cold outside is bad advice unless you're going to allow it to heat it up completely. At idle it would take I'm guessing at least a couple of hours for the bike to get warm enough to evaporate all the condensation you would create from starting it.

Fuel, such as gasoline comes from oil which is made up of hydrocarbons. Hydrogen and Carbon. When the carbon chemically combines with oxygen heat is generated and carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, (CO2 & CO). (Perfect combustion and you'd have Carbon Dioxide only, (CO2). At the same time Oxygen is combining with Hydrogen, (H2O). Water is a bye-product of combustion. When the exhaust is hot enough the water is vaporized and exits the exhaust pipe as vapour with the other gases. When the ambient temp and metal parts of the exhaust system are cold it condenses the vapour and that is what you see as exhaust "smoke" coming out your cars exhaust pipe in the cold weather. Until your bike has a chance to warm up which takes a good 1/2 hr at 30 to 50 miles an hour in warm ambient air, the water doesn't totally vaporize and that is what you are seeing dripping out your exhaust pipe. If this is allowed to sit in your exhaust pipe after you stop your engine it will corrode your exhaust system from the inside out. Adding alcohol to the mix, which is in some gas, is worse and if theres any residue of sulfur in you exhaust system you now have Sulfuric Acid, which is very corrosive and harmful to the inside of you exhaust system.

Seeing oil temps during the riding season of anywhere from 180 - 250+ F is normal. Any water in your oil starts evaporating out at 100 F. Believe me when I say it would take hours in the cold garage with no load on your engine for oil temps to get anywhere near hot enough to evaporate any condensation in your oil. Water gets into oil from the cylinders in your oil during combustion.

 

I keep a running fan on mine... The temp fluctuation will have the same affect during the winter months... Plus my bike remains in the breeze!