“Whether you’re laying your motorcycle up over winter or it’s your daily ride; here’s some advice, hints & tips to keep your motorcycle in peak condition.”

“Riding over winter:

Tyres. Rubber, easily overlooked, but your Supercorsa Track ready rubber will be useless on a freezing wet road in January.

Choose your tyres wisely. Go for a more winter weather type like Pirelli Angels, or Michelin Road Pilot 4s. These have both quick warm up times and deep water cutting tread with good levels of grip in the dry & wet.

If your race rubber is good, keep them for next season!

Protect your motorcycle:

Here at Mono Motorcycles we can not stress enough the importance of keeping your motorcycle clean. This has nothing to do with our OCD, but when you wash your motorcycle by hand, it is the single best way to do a visual check for those loose bolts, loose chains or finding a nail in that tyre. Not only that, it will help to keep its value.

Once washed & dried, mono motorcycles would recommend a coating of oil type protection like ACF50, Normally we would shy away from such coatings as a former Zymol detailer, oil based products attract dirt. However, it’s great for protection from road salt, & can be cleaned off in the spring when the sun comes back out.

Winter servicing:

If your riding throughout the winter, we highly recommend servicing your motorcycle. Checking such things as the battery, which will take a hammering over the winter months, is essential. Cold engines take a lot to start. Worn batteries will leave you out in the cold.

Checking the coolant can be awkward on most motorcycles, but leave it unchecked & if the antifreeze content is too low, it can cause catastrophic damage to a motor.

Brakes can also take a battering. It’s worth pulling the pads & adding ‘copper slip’ to the sliders, changing the fluid & cleaning the pistons. Chains are also out in the elements, so a good coating of chain lube will help.

Keep yourself warm:

It’s hard to concentrate when you’re cold. Make sure your kit is up to the job. However, it’s even easier these days with the added bonus of heated kit. Heated gloves, etc can be expensive, dependant on your budget. An inexpensive way to keep your hands warm, is to fit some heated grips.

Laying up your motorcycle over winter:

If you are not riding your motorcycle through the winter & want to lay it up; here are a few tips to keep it tip top & ready to go in the spring:

Protection:

Protect your motorcycle from the damp. ACF50 will help keep corrosion away, but a damp garage won’t help. mono motorcycles have used an oil radiator switched on low over the winter months, to keep the chill out. A decent motorcycle cover will help too.

Fuel:

Modern fuel is, well,  rubbish! High ethanol content rots rubber hoses & seals & reports state most modern fuels can go off in only 6 weeks! At mono motorcycles we recommend using a fuel additive. This will help stabilise the fuel over the coming months. Whatever you do, don’t run the tank dry!  If it’s at all damp, it will rust from the inside.

Other things to consider:

Tyres. Flat spots can appear if a motorcycle is left for prolonged periods. Putting the motorcycle on a paddock stand, will stop this.

Battery. Put the battery on an optimise style charger to “work” the battery while the motorcycle is turned off.”

Written by Daniel Morris , Master Technician at mono motorcycles.

If you have any questions or queries about any of our winter motorcycle protection or servicing packages, or you are considering laying your motorcycle up over the winter months; then contact Daniel or Katy on T: 01243 576212 / 07899 654446 E: info@monomotorcycles.co.uk or contact us through our contact page.