I'm seeing all these posts about "winterizing" the gs for winter storage. what if i plan to ride throughout most of winter? is there anything special i need to do to the bike?
I never do, but then it's not very humid here in Utah.
I suppose if you wanted to be a real stickler you could keep a can of gas at the house and top off the tank before you put the bike away each night. That would only help on COLD nights - by preventing moisture in the air in the tank from condensing into water droplets, sliding to the bottom of the tank, and eventually causing rust.
If there's no air in the tank, there's no moisture to worry about.
If your climate is anything similar to what we get here: Keep everything well lubed and, even if it's nasty in the cold weather, clean it rather more than less to get rid of the salt. That's about it. Maybe adjust carburetion a little on the rich side to get better starting behaviour.
cool. now i just need to find something to wear over my pants to keep my butt from freezing :)
Yeah, winterise yourself and ride! I ride through the winter except for bad icey conditions which we have not had in great quantity for a few years. I think I have onlt missed three or four days in the last two winters.My bike stands outside and has not let me down yet, my previous Honda used to dislike the really cold mornings and the electrics just refused to fire anything up but luckily it had a kick start and once kicked it always answered the call.
Being on the coast the maratime environment means the atmosphere is salty so I usually keep the bike well washed down and in the winter here the local authority deposits mountains of salt on the roads which keeps them rideable but scares me to death corrosion-wise hence regular washing down, loadsa WD40 etc. The only other thing I can think of it to be sure you know where your air filter is, take off the seat, its just under the tank, just in case you have to use a cold-start spray or somesuch.
Start her on Choke using as little throttle as possible, ideally none. The last thing you want to be doing is flooding the carbs on a cold morning when you are late for work. If you are going to do long journeys take a look at heated grips, they have got a heck of a lot cheaper in the last few years. Remember that they will take a while to heat up so for my 10-15 minute morning commute it's not worthwhile but anything over a half hour might be worth considering.