all season riders: How do you prepare your bike for the cold months?
 

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A question for the all-seaons-riders:
How do you prepare your bike for the cold months?

I admit, that I don´love ice and snow riding. Usually I try not to be out on the bike when the conditions are really bad, but nonetheless I spent a lot of time on my motorcycle at low temperatures because I´m an addict and I live „car free“.

My modifications for the cold season are:
- winter tires (K60 M+S Silica (SiO2)) – I bought them last year by chance and they turned out be good. The rubber is really soft. Thereby I put new SiO2-K60 on just these days.

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Heated grips + handlebar muffs- The muffs look horrible, but in combination with the heated grips they are a real pleasure. Much warmer fingers than with standard hand protections. You get the best results if you ride with semi-warm gloves since that allows much more temperatur transfer on the inner side of your hands and the outer side is wind protected by the muffs.

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So again the question: How do you prepare your bike for the cold season?

Cheers

Panny

The whole business of different tyres for summer and winter does seem to be an car world issue in certain euro countries - Germany in particular. If those K60's are optimised for winter conditions does that mean they wear out really quickly in hot summer conditions or do you change them for summer spec ones at, say, Easter? In the UK it would be unknown to have separate winter wheels and summer wheels but then we don't have huge snowfalls, only six months (or more!) of wet roads.

As far as the two bikes I use in the winter are concerned my no1 change is to cover both of them in acf50 anti rust spray. Some of the more inaccessible parts get painted in waxoyl and then acf50. Both bikes have a screen to keep the wind off and handlebar muffs. I've not bothered with heated grips but I do have a heated jacket and heated gloves (which I hardly ever use).

IMHO a screen is the best winter change you can make. It doesn't need to be huge - both mine have had to be be home made and I've made them roughly the same size as my upper body so there's no real difference in frontal area. The difference is that the screen takes the hit from the wind rather than you.

In the spring "clean-up day" sees the acf50 washed off and the screen + muffs removed. If you've coated everything thoroughly there should be very little corrosion under the acf layer.

The SiO2 K60ties are softer then the normal ones. You can feel it with the fingers. And yes, they wear down much quicker.
I ran the last ones at an overall average of 10° and they lasted 14,000, whereas normal K60 would make more than 20,000 at an average of 20°.
For last winter and this one it was easy for me in regards of change-rythm. New tyres where due anyway in October, so I put on those winter tyres and they will hardly last longer than march or april, since I ride a lot winter half of the year because of my life multimediashows (or do you call it life talks?).

Cheers

Panny

Funny you should ask this now as I have just come in from winterising my XR125 which gets used everyday and consisted of washing it off and covering with ACF50, that is it.
My prefered method is to put it in the garage and catch the next flight to Asia.

Where to in Asia this winter?

The problem is, I triped myself. I do earn my living as a motorcycle travel story teller, which includes a lot of multimediashows / live talks and the season for them is October to April = exactly that part of the year when I don´t want to be here because of the weather.

Cheers

Panny

India again I expect, I have a Hero Honda 150 waiting for me in Mumbai, not until February though.

The upper most photo in the thread is from India :-)

Cheers

Panny

I must admit, i do have 2 sets of wheels. The grotty originals that get used off road & in winter and the new shiney ones for the summer months. The bikes an airhead gs and is used all year round, currently up & down the m4 every week. One of my fave things is my gaucho from tucano urbano. A bit like an old fogies wheelchair knee rug! Amazingly well thought out, keeps the wind and rain off your legs and chest. I also have heated gloves under army surplus goretex mitts. The bike gets hosed down regularly and coated with wd 40.that seems to have Done the job for the last 15 years. I did try snow chains in the snow and they worked surprisingly well. my dad says they used to smother their old beezas and nortons with vaseline back in the day....

I've always ridden all year round and my maintenance plan, such as it is, doesn't really change in winter. At the start of winter I clean and ACF every inch of the bike and leave it overnight to soak into all the hard to reach bits. I do the same once the winter is over and don't touch it again until next Winter. I've found one important place not to miss with the ACF is both ends of the spokes.

It seems to do the trick, I've never had any rust issues.

As for keeping warm, heated gear is the way to go. I find grips make my hands very uncomfortable, hot inside, cold outside - it causes me considerable pain.

I´d love to see a picture of it!

Cheers

Panny

Heated seat.
 

Along with all of the other goodies that I have fitted to my Deauville, such as tall screen, heated handlebar grips, foot and hand wind deflectors and a re- upholstered heat a la Goldwing, a heated seat works a treat to help keep me warm and comfortable in the cold or wet.

Hopefully there is a picture attached ???