I'm just about to clean the gunge off my bike and I have to hold my hands up and admit I've neglected it cos there's quite a few bits of rust breaking out. It lives outside under a cover and I don't expect I'll be going out very often over the next 2 or 3 months. Is there anything I can do to minimise the chance of revealing a rustling hulk next time I take the cover off?                                                                                                                                                                             

ACF50. 'nuff said!                                                                                                                                                                             

que??? I'll google it lol                                                                                                                                                                             

Googled it and gotta get some of that! Wow!... Cheers Wills, thanks for your glowing testimonial?
Will it cook me dinner and clean my blocked gutters too??!!                                                                                                                                                                             

wd 40 works well too..dnt forget u will need to look after the battery ....ideally take it off and keep it in the warm..otherwise a trickle charge every two weeks for a few hrs will be required if you dont wanna risk it dying. Not good to let it sit an totally discharge. A good wax polish will help the painted parts too....as will a soft old blanket over the seat/tank. Make sure your cover is well secured,windy days will make the cover lift n flap and may chafe the paint. If it has a chain give it a good oil up before it stands. I like to leave the fuel tank full to the brim to stop the tank corroding but be aware modern fuels can cause issues if the tank is plastic! Also there csn be issues with unleaded evaporating in the carb if yer bike has one and blocking jets up! There is an additive you can put in the fuel to stop this. Finally, pump the tyres up a bit more than usual and try to keep them under the cover too. If u remember rotate the wheels occasionally too. simples........lol                                                                                                                                                                             

Thanks for that rossoandy   I learned the hard way about the battery last winter, so thanks for the reminder cos I don't want to have to buy another new one                                                                                                                                                                             

Bike on main stand if you have one then start cleaning after its completly clean start with and oily rag and go over the bike untill its all done nice and oily                                                                                                                                                                              

But what if the weather comes nice and I get this urge to go out....It'll be all covered in oil! yuk                                                                                                                                                                             

use bike then start all over again lol                                                                                                                                                                             

save yourself some money in the long run Margaret, you can buy a solar trickle charger for your bike for between £10 & £20                                                                                                                                                                               

Ride though the winter the best way to stop a bike rotting away.                                                                                                                                                                             

Got an optimate charger shell but creates a nasty draft cos I have to put the power cable through the catflap lol     I'm not intending to take the bike off the road over the winter Ragnar but we can get some pretty rough weather up here that puts a stop to playing out on it for weeks on end                                                                                                                                                                             

as Will said ACF50 and i always run the engine for a bit every week end, dont need to use the optimate than
                                                                                                                                                                             

ACF50 is now ordered from Amazon Bill. Blimey hope it does all it claims to cos it sounds like the bees knees                                                                                                                                                                             

  Minnie I think they do portable bike garages, or some such?, sorry it's vague, but I'm sure someone on here mentioned them a while ago. That would keep your bike snuggly and warm and out of the elements wouldn't it?                                                                                                                                                                              

yup cheers Sandi I've seen them on fleabay and I'm considering getting one. It looks like a big hood on an old fashioned babies pram lol   At the moment I haven't got anywhere to put it but I'm working on sorting that out                                                                                                                                                                               

Has your bike got an alarm/immobiliser?

This will drain the battery heavily if it's on so disarm it completely if you can.

Also just idling the bike won't keep the charge up in the battery as most charging circuits don't kick in fully until the revs are up (circa 2500rpm on my Tiger) and you'll be putting a big drain on it with the lights being on and then cranking it over.

Best bet is to bring the battery indoors and trickle/charge it every few weeks. That way it'll be ready to go when the weather turns nice unexpectedly :)

Also I give another plug for ACF50 (or an equivalent product such as Motorex Protect and Shine or even WD40) they really do work well to prevent corrosion.                                                                                                                                                                             

 Dont turn the lights on and dont rev the bike when its cold, watch the temp. gauge and give it a little bit of a rev once it starts getting warm, this also helps to keep the damp out of it. It certainly works with my Fireblades one of them i haven't had out the garage for two years but it still fires up ok every week or two without a battery charger.
 On some bikes you can't turn the lights of, but if it your not using it over winter than why not take the headlight bulb out.

Dont see the point in this to be honest,,,we dont get winter as such anymore,,,,,not like the four seasons we used to get years ago,,,,,not that i'm old enough to remember them... I use my bike 12 months of the year providing no snow on roads and find that you can get some great days out in dec and jan,,,, sometimes better than our so called summer days !!!!! My first ride out this year was new years day to Whitby,,,and had fish & chips !!! I think less people are now putting thier bikes off road for so called winters !!! but for those that do then there is some good advice in these posts                                                                                                                                                                               

Some brilliant advice there, thanks I keep forgetting to turn my lights off...ooops   Margaret, I had Ziggy out under a cover last year, until it got ripped to shreds in some bad winds, so for a few days he was under about 3ft of snow ( yes we do have it bad oop north..lol) and he has got a bit of rust on the springs etc now, but a friend suggested WD40 all over the engine bits and other metal bits and it's working a treat.   I've done this a couple of times, then needed to get out on Ziggy again, it's no problem, it just smells and may smoke a little bit when you first start up, thats all.   This year I've made room in my shed tho, so Ziggy's going in there.  I don't have an optimate, but I will start him up every week or so.