How to Park your Bike for Long Time: Top Ten Tips
Introduction
If you are going out of your native place or working place for a long time (more than 3 to 4 weeks) and worry about how to park bikes so that I could have found it in the same condition as of now. I am covering all in ten points through this blog. Small ignorance can cause you a big expense on your bike. Please read and do follow the same.
1. Water Resistant Cover
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| Image by Woody wood from Pixabay |
This is the most important thing to do and probably all are following this. If you are going anywhere from your home town or job location for a long time then you should cover your bike from good quality water-resistant cover so that your bike could be prevented from rainfall, dust, and grit. Park your bike in a dry place. It could be a better choice to park in a shaded area instead of an open area.
2. Washing before Pitching your Bike in Parking
Complete washing of your bike is needed to be done because there is a lot of mud and fine particles get a stick on the hidden area of your bike as below engine, on chassis of the bike, and still on the cooling fins/oil cooling radiator of the bike which can cause rusting. So washing with pressurized water is needed before pitching your bike in parking mode.
3. Paint Protection
Paint is the jewel of any bike. Bird's poop or other small sticky dirt can spoil your paint after long term presence on it. They make spots on it and that spots spread day by day. After washing, proper waxing is needed for the paint protection of your bike.
4. Remove Battery off
If you are parking your bike more than three to four weeks than you should unhook the connecting terminals/joint of the battery. Sometimes connecting terminals of battery corrode after no use in the long term.
In modern days, bikes are coming with an anti-theft security system like cars which requires power supply even your bike is off or park. So you should remove battery or battery terminals off. It will also prevent your bike from stealing if you park in the open area.
5. Remove Spark Plug
As carbon covers the tip and electrode of spark plug during combustion around 3,000 kilometres of riding. Long term holding without the ignition on can cause an interruption in the ignition of the engine. So, remove the spark plug, clean the coagulate carbon layer, and keep this discretely at a safe place.
6. Service before leaving Bike in Parking
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| Image by Monoar Rahman Rony from Pixabay |
It's better to undertake service before leaving a bike in parking for the long term either you can change engine oil. Used engine oil gets contaminated with worn engine dirt and soot particles during combustion of the engine that can cause a problem of piston corrosion as well as problem to the engine oil filter.
7. Full Top Up of Petrol Tank
During long time parking, the main problem encountered is corrosion in the petrol tank of a bike. Though a modern petrol tank made from quality steel material comes with the advanced anti-rust property it is beneficial to a full top-up of petrol tank with quality petrol of high octane number i.e. high-speed petrol. An additive can also be mixed in the petrol tank.
8. Park on full stand
If you will park your bike on the side stand, cracks in tyres might be possible during the long term load of the whole bike on it which can cause bursting of tyres in future. Park the bike on the full stand to prevent tyres from a load of the bike. I have phased this problem on my bike. Because of a small mistake of parking my bike on the side stand in front of my main door around four weeks, I had to change my rear tyre with a new one.
9. Appropriate Tyre pressure
Maintain appropriate pressure in tyres as per the tyre pressure guideline of front and rear wheels.
10. Oiling of all Movables and Joints
Do gentle oiling of all movables like the front brake, rear brake, and clutch, etc. so that it prevents those movables of bike from rusting and response better at the time of riding again.
Conclusion
The above suggestions are very easy to follow. A well-maintained bike can assure better safety as well as the best service. A little ignorance can lead to a big problem. So always tuned your bike with your heart.
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