The best thing for a motorcycle is to ride it regularly. However, if you are not going to ride your motorcycle for two years or more the best thing for it is to mothball it properly so that it will not suffer long-term damage in storage.
Wash, polish, and wax
Give the motorcycle a really good bath. First rinse it and then wash all of the painted surfaces with soap and water. Then rinse and go back and use mineral spirits on a paper towel to remove any tar or hard to remove dirt. Then wash again with soap and water to remove the grime and mineral spirits and and rinse well. Wash the wheels, forks, swing arm, exposed parts of the engine, and exhaust trying not to get water into the exhaust. Use a leaf blower to blow most of the water from the bike and then use either a leather chamois or soft microfiber cloth to dry the painted surfaces.
Once the body work is completely dry, polish and wax it.
Clean, clean, clean
Remove all of the body work and clean as best you can. If the bike is really dirty, take it back outside and use a soft brush with soap and water to remove any grease and grime from engine casings, swing arm, forks, side and center stand, wheels, etc. You can also use WD-40 and/or Windex and soft rags to clean off grease and dirt.
Clean the chain with a proper cleaner that will not damage the o-rings or x-rings and a soft tooth brush.
Change the coolant
Drain the coolant by removing the coolant drain bolt (usually on the water pump) as best you can and then flush with a quart or so of fresh coolant. Re-install the coolant drain plug with a new crush washer and tighten. Fill with fresh coolant. When it is almost full, gently squeeze the exposed radiator and coolant hoses to force air to bubble up to the fill opening of the system. Continue to do this until you cannot fill it anymore. Flush and then fill the overflow reservoir and then run the bike.
Let it get hot, until the fans come on and then turn off the bike and let it cool. Let it cool about 10 minutes or so and then change the oil (see below).
Once it is completely cool, open the coolant fill cap and top off the system. Also top off the reservoir.
Change the oil and filter
While the motor is still warm change the oil and filter and fill with fresh oil. Turn it over, or run it to fill the oil filter and then top it off.
Drain Carburetors or Depressurize Fuel Lines
If you have carbs on your bike completely drain them. If your bike is fuel injected, remove the connection to the fuel pump from the wiring harness and start the bike, it should only run for a second until it stalls. This will relieve the pressure in the fuel lines to the injectors and mostly drain the fuel rail.
Fog the Engine
Remove the spark plugs from each of the cylinders spray some engine fogging oil into each of the cylinders and then turn the motor over a few times. Replace the plugs.
Drain Fuel Tank and Fuel Lines and Fog the Tank
One of the worst things that you can do for the bike is to leave it with fuel in it for a few years. You will almost certainly come back to a rusted out tank and the fuel pump and lines clogged with some terrible gunk.
Completely drain the tank. This is a bit more difficult than it sounds as you want to get ALL of the liquid fuel out of it. Start by turning off the petcock, attaching a fuel line to it and putting the other end into a sufficiently sized fuel container and turning the petcock to “Reserve” to drain as much fuel as possible.
If your bike has the fuel pump in the tank itself, without a petcock, you can either
- Get a hand/ball fuel transfer pump and insert one end of the hose into the lowest part of the tank and pump it out
- Disconnect the pump from the wiring harness and attach one end of some fuel line to the fuel pump outlet and put the other into a fuel container. Then power the pump directly with a 12v power supply to pump out the fuel. Ensure that as you turn off the pump as soon as it is dry or you can damage the pump
Once you have removed as much of the fuel as possible get some absorbent, long, rags; an old pair of kids sweat pants works great. Hold the tank vertically so that the lowest part is now the front of the tank and all of the remaining fuel has moved to what is now the lowest point. Stuff the rag into the tank towards what is now the lowest part of the tank to try to soak up as much of the remaining fuel as possible, making sure not to completely insert the cloth into the tank because you will need to remove it. Pick the tank up and move it around to try to get the fuel to come in contact with the cloth. Then, carefully, remove the now gasoline soaked cloth and discard it. Pick the tank up and gently rotate it. You should no longer hear fuel sloshing around in it. Continue the process until you no longer hear any liquid sloshing around.
Using compressed air, blow into the tank opening to try to dry out the remaining fuel. Then leave it open, overnight, to dry out.
The next day, take a full can of fogging oil (you can use the rest of the can that you used to fog the motor) and spray that into the tank. Removing the gas cap assembly will make it easier to spray into the tank at different angles. Try to coat the entire interior surface of the tank. Once you have emptied the can into the tank, reinstall and close the gas cap and then gently turn it around to ensure that you have coated the interior of the tank.
Flush Brake and Hydraulic Fluid
Completely flush all hydraulic fluids. Brakes and, if your bike has it, the hydraulic clutch. You can start by opening the reservoir and sucking out any fluid in there and then refilling it before flushing each of the systems. Ensure to run at least three reservoirs or more through each system until the fluid comes out completely clear. Top off with fresh fluid.
Lube Cables
Remove and lube all cables; throttle, choke, and clutch.
Lube/Coat the Chain
Lube the chain liberally with an appropriate chain lube. This will help prevent the chain from corroding.
Remove the Battery
Finally, remove the battery completely from the bike. More likely than not, if it is going to sit unused for a long time you will need to get a new one anyway and you do not want to worry about having to keep it on a tender or corroding and leaking acid all over your bike.
Put it up on “Blocks” Indoors and Cover it
Find a safe place to store it. The best places to store it, in descending order
- Climate controlled indoor space
- A garage
- A shed
Ideally, you will store it suspended by the frame and not the suspension.
Get a front stand that lifts the bike with a pin that inserts into the bottom of the steering stem and use that to lift the front wheel off of the ground.
If your bike has a center stand use that to raise the rear wheel off of the ground. You will probably need to put it on a few blocks of wood so that it raises it high enough to match the height of the front stand. If it does not have a center stand, you will need to fabricate some sort of stand on which the lower part of the frame rests, where the swing arm mounts to the bike
Cover the bike with a proper motorcycle cover.