I'm planning on picking my bike up from storage next week...
I'm going to ride whenever weather permits...

my question is...what should I do to prep my bike to be on the road again?......what should I do to be prepared to ride it off the lot?

Also, during those remaining winter weeks...is it ok if i just leave it in my garage not winterized?...

is it enough to just start it up once a week?...

so far i havent winterized mine yet, im not in canada or the far north for that matter, but it is plenty cold here. i started mine atleast once a week, but it went almost two months without being started, was a bit difficult then, but after about 5 min of choke was fine. but battery was somewhat discharged too. id at least recommend getting a battery tender, at least if you do anything keep the battery up

how about a write-up about carb cleaning?

i've heard that starting up the bike once a week is actually a bad idea...it will cause condensation and will be more prone to rust...or something like that... :dunno:

Quote from: yamahonkawazukibut it went almost two months without being started, was a bit difficult then, but after about 5 min of choke was fine

same experience here.  I left the bike idle for about 5 weeks in the garage.  I had originally pulled the battery, but I took her for a spin in Jan and just left the battery in.  two days ago it fired up no problem, except for a slightly drained battery.  A jump from my truck and I was off.  She behaved just like she normally does in sub-freezing temps.. about 3 minutes on choke and then 20 minutes to finish warming up.

I've heard from several sources that just starting it up every so often isn't a good idea for reasons that you already pointed out.  I still plan on giving her some exercise now and then even if the temps stay below freezing, just riding around the neighborhood for 10 or 20 minutes.  It's too bad that its such a pain in the arse to get to the airbox, or applying fogging oil after riding would be a good strategy, but having to take the tank off after every ride would be a pain.

Setting up a bike for winter storage is a preserving measure taken to ensure that you wont have to do much of anything to get it running again come springtime. Sorta like preventive maintenance. A properly preserved bike may only require the battery to be taken off the trickle charger and put in the bike, the fuel tank valve turned open (the one under the tank) and the petcock turned to PRI.

Reference: http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=4354.msg34764#msg34764