Winterizing questions - how to prepare Spyder for cold storage?

[Arachnerds]

Sorry if this has been posted in the past, but my search didn't really show anything that was specific to this situation. Here in the snowy north, we generally store our bikes for about 5 months (Nov-Mar)...always in climate controlled conditions and plugged into a tender. This year, we will need to consider something other than that due to an almost 100% increase in the charge :shocked:, that we just got informed about a couple of weeks ago. Since it's so late in the season, our choices are VERY limited. Very few of the storage units have electrical outlets. If they do, they are not climate controlled and will be below freezing and often below 0, for lengths of time. So, what are your suggestions for how to prep the bike for COLD storage? We're not exactly the "mechanical, wrenching-types" that I know are on this forum, so not interested in tearing apart all that's needed to get the battery out from under the seat of an older model. Do we just have to "bite the bullet" and shell out several hundreds of dollars more???

 

[Mikey]

It's easy, just put some good fuel in the tank with about a shot or two of marine stabil in the tank, take it out for a ride to get it up into the system! Then take it home and put it on a charger and give the battery a good charge till full! then put it to bed in the storage unit, I would take the battery connection that you can get to from the side and disconnect it, maybe put a wrap of tape on it and say see ya in the spring! No worries, if you have a good strong battery it will not freeze, and you'll be all set it the spring, if it isn't then you'll have a nice new battery for next winter!!!

 

[Bfromla]

Pre Hibernation Battery Care - Tender/Charger/Maintainer

https://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/showthread.php?135857-Pre-hibernation-battery-charge-maintainer

 

[Mazo EMS2]

Do you know someone that could do a few minutes of wrenching for you? maybe watch a youtube video to see how to take the battery out. Otherwise, do the above to treat the fuel, I also like to put a couple extra pounds of air in the tires, spray a shot of wd40 lube on the front steering components and the parking brake cable parts, the latches for the storage compartments, etc... I also change the oil/filter in the fall. If you can get that battery out, I would certainly try to, and take it home to put on a tender.

 

[Deanna777]

Sorry if this has been posted in the past, but my search didn't really show anything that was specific to this situation. Here in the snowy north, we generally store our bikes for about 5 months (Nov-Mar)...always in climate controlled conditions and plugged into a tender. This year, we will need to consider something other than that due to an almost 100% increase in the charge :shocked:, that we just got informed about a couple of weeks ago. Since it's so late in the season, our choices are VERY limited. Very few of the storage units have electrical outlets. If they do, they are not climate controlled and will be below freezing and often below 0, for lengths of time. So, what are your suggestions for how to prep the bike for COLD storage? We're not exactly the "mechanical, wrenching-types" that I know are on this forum, so not interested in tearing apart all that's needed to get the battery out from under the seat of an older model. Do we just have to "bite the bullet" and shell out several hundreds of dollars more???

I live in VT. (I put my spyder in hibernation from Oct. to April) I change the oil/filter, keep the gas tank full, put fuel stabilizer in the gas tank (& let the machine run a while to get the stabilizer into the system) put the spyder on a battery maintainer that automatically goes to float mode when it's fully charged.

Put a cover over the spyder, and put dryer sheets around the machine to deter small animals. Maybe put something in the muffler so that small animals won't crawl in there. (In the spring remove the whatever you put in the muffler).

Deanna

 

[MNBK]

Here in Minnesota we put Seafoam in the gas tank and fill it up, run it for about 10 minutes. We store our F3Ls in an enclosed trailer plugged into power, and stored then in a pole barn. Don't worry about the cold weather. In the spring they have always started up with no problem.