winter remorse

[rizp]

Anybody ever put their bike up for the winter WAY to damn early? mine's been locked up in my landlord's garage since the 1st week of November.
the day after I put it up, temps went up, and the sky cleared. I think I missed at least a week of rideable days over the last 30. they didn't start salting here until like 3 days ago.

arrgh stupid stupid stupid  :x

now the question is, how EARLY can I get her outta storage? I'm thinking mid march is a possibility, more likely early april. I'm sure there's gonna be rideable days before then, but I wanna wait for the 600 tons of salt they dump on the roads here to get washed off before I venture out. There's no hose attachment outside my apartment, so rinsing the underside off after a ride would be a pain in the butt and I'm in no hurry to rust out the bottom of my bike.

Regards
Riz

[tdan553527]

Storage, what's that.

Just bundle up and go.

[Kerry]

Speaking of salt, I don't think Cal Price would mind my sharing a couple photos that he sent me.  Direct from his 2003 bike in Dover, England:

[Ed_in_Az]

Kerry, those pictures are scary.  You are so going to like this dry, rustfree Arizona bike.

With those kinds of conditions, how can anyone blame the manufacturer for a poor finish? What could stand up to that? :dunno:

[Dom]

GEEZ.  He need's some stainless allen screws in that carb...he's never going to be able to crack those puppies open.

[Daniely]

Wow, salt kicked that bikes butt. Im still ridin to and from work and school every day here in cali, and where what? 10 days away from christmas, and we can still ride here. I love it, just cant get rid of this bike for the life of me, lol. Still cant believe those pics, didnt know salt was so horrible...

**just an afterthought, whats the typical life expectancy of a car where they salt the roads?

[rizp]

for cars, it really depends on preventative maintenance. Putting on a good coat of wax before the snow (and salt) starts flying goes a long way.
I had a '91 VW golf that was still virtually rust free in 2000 b/c I was religious about protecting the paint. it looks like that's just surface salt on the screw, just hope he rinsed it off after it cooled.

Regards,
Riz


on the plus side, ski season is upon us. I've got a couple of places ~20 minutes from my apartment for winter recreation.

of course, if I go nuts:




or if I go REALLY nuts:

[juggernaught]

for cars, it really depends on preventative maintenance. Putting on a good coat of wax before the snow (and salt) starts flying goes a long way.
I had a '91 VW golf that was still virtually rust free in 2000 b/c I was religious about protecting the paint. it looks like that's just surface salt on the screw, just hope he rinsed it off after it cooled.

Regards,
Riz


on the plus side, ski season is upon us. I've got a couple of places ~20 minutes from my apartment for winter recreation.

of course, if I go nuts:




or if I go REALLY nuts:

That is so friggin' cool...!!!  Both literally and figuratively...

[nathanael]

I now live in Southern California, where we certainly don't have any salt   . But most of my life I grew up in Vermont. Salt there can kill a car--fast!! I've seen a car become completely structurally unsound (a.k.a. the frame rusted apart) in less than 8 years.  When I lived in Vermont I washed my car in the winter once a week....minimum! Still got some rust in a couple of years, but not too bad. I think wax helps, but the most important thing is keeping that darn salt OFF!  Especially when the temperature warms up and everything gets wet, that's killer on a car.

Here in LA my car is lucky if it gets washed every three months. Why bother?   :mrgreen:

[Eklipse]

Yikes, makes me glad I live in Texas. I never even think about that sort of thing. And I get to ride all year, except maybe a few weeks when it's real cold  

[manofthefield]

Anybody ever put their bike up for the winter WAY to damn early? mine's been locked up in my landlord's garage since the 1st week of November.

I think I timed it perfectly;  took my bike home at thanksgiving break to winterize and store in my parents' garage.  As soon as I got back we got about 6 inches of snow.  

I was prepared for the fact that there may have been a few nice days after thanksgiving, and there were a few rideable ones after the first snow melted, but just told myself it was time to concentrate on finals.  Now the snow is here for good, which means I'm thinking about getting an old snowmobile to play around with.   Or maybe I'll just stick with my skis and snowshoes :dunno:

On the topic of salt, it's great here in the U.P., because once the snow is here for good, it would only make it worse to try to melt the crap away and have it freeze every night.  They just lay down a crap ton of gravel/dirt.  The dry snow we get here is actually pretty good for driving on.

PS:  One guy in my motorcycle club is putting studs in his tire to ride all winter, like that sportbike;  only he's doing it on an old pos honda cx500 :mrgreen:

[Cal Price]

Pretty much all the Aluminium here looks like that,...honest.
Salt on our roads but in my case much aggravated by salty maratime air, at least the plugs came out sweet.

[dyran]

All I know is that it is -40 degree celcius outside and I'm staying in and studying until my exam is over then I'm going home and working on my bike for a couple of weeks (brake job and maybe make a fiberglass hugger if I have time). Lucky bastards in hot climates.

[Kerry]

it is -40 degree celcius outside

I remember from my schooldays that -40 degrees is the one temperature that is the same on both the Celcius and Farenheit scales.  That's pretty cold - surely you jest?  

[dyran]

Nope it hurts to breath outside, there is a sever weather warning and the news is saying if you get stuck on the side of the road that after 5-10 minutes phone 911 for help or you could freeze to death.

[dolepineapple]

it's true. . .

i was outside for 28 seconds today
and my boogers froze on my skin. . .

i had to run warm water on my nose to unfreeze it
and it hurt like a b*tch

cheers,
joel

ps:  wish i was somewhere tropical with lots of twisties

[fettcols]

I've been putting off storing the bike... I got to ride on a decent day the first week of december and I've been going out to the garage and letting the bike warm up every other day since... Central Ohio got a nice little snow over the weekend and the roads are nice and salty... That sounds like the best time to put it away...


fett

[LizardQueen]

I put mine up in late October (I'm in Vermont). We often get snow by or on Halloween so it seemed like it was time.  

I miss it, and there's been a few times I've wanted to haul it out of the shed, put the battery back in, and just go around the block freezing my ass off just to get back on again.

But I think today put those ideas to rest - it was -7 when I went to work, is -10 now, and  hasn't cracked 0 all day. The road salt isn't working because it's so cold and it's black ice everywhere.  

I like those spiked tires in that picture that was posted :lol: .

I had an old Celica that rusted out so bad that when I put the jack back in the wheelwell once it fell through and out onto the ground.  The box frame was rusted so bad I was surprised it didn't snap in half when I hit a bump.

I buy my cars new then keep them for 12 or so years. By the time I get done with them they're pretty much covered with Bondo.  The salt does horrible things to them. I wax and wash them but  there's only so much that you can save them from.  It's always the door seams that rot out first.  

LQ

[fettcols]

Tip on keeping the car from rusting... Find an automatic carwash in your area with a serious underspray... It doesn't do much for the door seams but it will make your exhaust system last longer... It's always the first casualty...


fett