about to winterize

[nychris]

I'm about to winterize my bike for the season. Should I do an oil change now or in the spring when I'm ready to ride again? Other than that, after reading a few posts here, I'll probably just do the following and be done:

- fill my gas tank and add some Stabil fuel stabilizer
- use a trickle charger on the battery
- put the bike on the Pitbull stands that I bought from CalSportBikes

Am I missing anything?

Thanks!

 

[ranman]

i would change the oil now.
and a pluss on the other things

 

[psycobusa]

i believe the manual says you should fill the crankcase with oil until it reaches the top of the fill hole. i could be wrong, it might have said top of the sight glass but i did mine that way and it took about 14 quarts. mine sat up for over a year and i wanted to make sure as much as possible was lubricated. i used the cheap castrol instead of the regular mobil mx4t though.

before that you're suppose to take out the plugs and pour 1-2 table or tea spoons of oil (cant remember which....its in the manual tho) then reinstall the plugs and let it run a few seconds.....i think this is to keep the pistons and rings from siezing to the cylinder walls.

wash it and wax it, then insert some oily rags into the mufflers and ram air intakes.....this keeps moisture out and prevents rodents and such from gettin in there.

just read the manual. it tells you everything you need to do for winterizing the bike.