Winterizing motorcycle with PAM?
 

I store my harley in a unheated shed attached to my house. There's a lot of chrome on my bike and last winter I took on quite a bit of rust, some of it I couldn't get off. Never buying chrome from harley again, it's cheap shit.

Anyway, a friend of mine who's into hot rods told me to cover my bike in PAM - the cooking spray - and that would keep moisture from settling in the metal and therefore keep it from rusting. Says he does it on his cars.

Has anyone else heard of this? Anyone use this method? Or is this guy just jerking my chain?

... almost sounds like it would work. If I wasn't lazy, I'd look it up on Google.

I have a Honda Sabre with a crapload of chrome hanging off it. For storage this winter, I'm going to cover the chrome with a real thick layer of polish.

is that a metric crapload, or a S.A.E. crapload?

In my case, metric. :)

Run the gas tank dry, winterize it as usual, clean it really well, put big bags of silica gel or other desiccant on it tucked into tight spaces and on top, then wrap it up with a big roll of industrial heat shrink wrapping and go to work with a heat gun. Come spring, it will be like opening a nice new present to yourself.

Pam will work, but it's not exactly the ideal solution. The premise is similar to the rust-proof sprays they use for cars; covering the rust-prone areas in oil keeps the moisture off, which in turn delays oxidation. A vegetable-based oil, however, is probably not the best choice for that application, since it may attract pests (as noted). I'd be more comfortable using something petroleum-based. So if you're bent on doing this, do it with WD-40.

Or do what MSD says. That's also good advice and has the immeasurable advantage of not leaving you with the job of cleaning all the crap off come spring.

I would also go the WD-40 route; it won't get rancid which I suspect Pam might though I'm not sure, and for sure WD-40 displaces moisture and leaves a protective coating, but you'll have to wipe off the surfaces when you go to use it so it doesn't get on whatever you wear.

I'm sure MSD's dessicant method would be a really good way ...plus I always like the idea of opening presents. An added benefit for me is that with my lapsing memory I might forget what's in the package and get a great surprise! ;)

Shrink wrap seems like a lot of work for a bike in a garage. I think I'll stick to the heavy coat of carnuba wax and chrome polish / lay a bed sheet over it / check it periodically.

Man, that'd be great if that happened every time I opened the gun safe.

You guys drain all your fluids when you winterize or do you max out and "Stabil" them?

It's been a while since I've had to winterize a bike, but I'm a firm believer in draining everything and putting fresh fluids in come spring. Oil breaks down over time, coolant (if your bike is liquid cooled) turns corrosive. Etc. Plus, there's nothing like that feeling that of accomplishment in the spring after having just finished getting everything ready to go again.

Thats really a bad idea. Drain the crankcase of oil and air goes in there. And theres moisture in the air.


I always let it sit with the old oil in it and change first thing in spring.

This is actually what I meant ('draining everything and putting fresh fluids in come spring' was meant as one coherent thought, rather than two seperate actions). I apologize if that was unclear. In my defence, I don't sleep. Sometimes thoughts get garbled.

Martian... do you get enough sleep on your planet, brother?

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Anybody else have a cruiser with a metric crapload of chrome that requires an extensive amount of work to maintain?

This sounds like a really bad idea to me, as does draining everything.

If you wrap up your bike chances are you're going to trap air and moisture. Think of how condensation builds up on sealed containers of food. Same thing goes for draining the oil.

Put the bike on stands, pull out the battery and put it on a TRICKLE charger (not a normal charger or it will explode), add Gas Stabilizer to a fresh tank and cover it. (this is what I'll be doing, never fails me)

I have heard of the coating chrome before, someone said they used margarine, and hypothetically it should work but you'll want to make sure you check on it periodically to make sure it's okay.

Yeah, this is what I'm doing with mine. Keeping it in the garage under a bedsheet (in the air) and full of fluids. Instead of butter on the chrome, I'm just using a thick spackle of polish. I keep it topped off, jacked up, and the battery tricklin', but I've heard so many different "best ways" to winterize a bike that I figured I'd ask.

I'm new to motorcycles, myself. First year I've had one, first 2k miles on it.

its not going to hurt you to look up words you dont know. you'd be surprised at how much you can learn that way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiccant

To answer the question in the OP, vegetable based oils will get rancid.
In March: "Shit, I could've sworn I had a motorcycle around here somewhere."
I don't have a bike, but in the rare case that a lawnmower is still running at the end of the summer I wash it, run the gas tank dry, put in fresh gas with Sta-bil and a bit of 2-cycle oil (to prevent carb rust and sticking,) drain the oil, run it for five minutes with a quart of engine flush or transmission fluid to clean everything out, put in a quart of synthetic oil (don't do this if your motorcycle has a wet clutch!) start it up for a few seconds, then tape silica gel packs in the muffler and air filter openings, put a new air filter on, put Glad Press and Seal over the openings, let it cool on a dry day, lightly oil the blade, then shove the whole thing in a contractor grade garbage bag and duct tape it shut.
Moisture is why you get a few half-pound bags of silica gel. Those will suck the moisture out of everything.

My mistake, but I wouldn't put money on that working 100%.

Middle school sarcasm aside... how well are desiccant sacks gonna work on a rather large bike that isn't 100% vacuum sealed in a spacious garage and left for many months?

I have a metric crap-ton of desiccant in my uber-pricey gun safe (yes, I reactivate the bags on schedule) and I still manage to get some occasional reddin' on my often-oiled sixguns hammers. They're not perfect.

Thanks for sharing the Wiki. As you know: All of us here read, most of us disagree with each other.

That is what I was wondering also. I don't believe that they wouldn't leave pockets where moisture would build up. Sounds like much more work than necessary anyways.

I looked up some info on desiccants, and the effective temperature range is basically room temp to 150 Fahrenheit.

Pretty much eliminates this as a viable option for an unheated shed.

Then I guess the only remaining option is to do the same thing to both your guns and the motorcycle: prep them and give them a quick dip in an 800-gallon vat of cosmoline.

But... but... I DEMAND PERFECTION! Okay, just kidding.

My bike is going to be in a garage that is near freezing for a couple months. Which sucks, but if I put my bike in my living room... I'd probably never get laid again.

(dips himself in Cosmoline)

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Now for one of those hellish math problems on the SAT:

If I cover my exhaust in PAM and wrap aluminum foil pouches of OreIda tater tots around it... how many miles would it take to cook them? Assume I have a 1100CC Honda engine, 2.5" pipes, and a 55 mph speed limit.

http://www.cabelas.com/prod-1/0005569210423a.shtml


Golden rod for the gun safe. Mebbe get 10 and just stick them in the garage :D

For the sake of simplicity, I'll assume the PAM, exhaust pipe, foil, and packaging function as a system to form a 50% efficient exchanger. The outside temperature here is 45°F and the Tater Tots will start frozen at at 32°F. The gear ratio allows your bike to go 55mph at 1700RPM, releasing roughly 5000cc of exhaust gas at 1200°F, transferring one quarter of that (50% heat exchange and air has half the specific heat of steel) to the metal.

At a surface temperature of 300° and air temperature of 45°, the average heat applied to the entire surface of the tater tots at any time is 150°F. Tater tots are approximately 50% water and 50% starch, giving them a specific heat of approximately 2.5 joules per gram. Fortunately, this is approximately the mean specific heat of the exhaust pipe and air flowing over the bike. This means that riding at 55mph will will be the equivalent of baking them in an oven set to 150°.

The cooking instructions for tater tots specify that they should be baked at 450° for 8 minutes. 450° for 8 minutes is equivalent to 150° for 23 minutes. Because the approximate specific heat of the exhaust pipe and air flowing is 2.5 and the specific heat of the air in a baking oven is approximately 1.0, the cooking time can be divided by 2.5

For any amount of tater tots less than or equal to the number that it would take to cover the whole exhaust system, the approximate cooking time is 10.5 minutes. At 55mph, you would cover just under 11.5 miles in 10.5 minutes, so assuming that the bike is fully warmed up, plan to make an 11.5 mile trip to cook your taters, 12.5 miles if you like them extra crispy.

If you were a woman... I would ask to marry you.

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No, seriously... I'm way impressed.

Thanks for making my day, bro. :thumbsup: