1

Change the engine oil. Just before you put your motorcycle away for the winter is a good time to do one more oil change. This ensures that the full anticorrosive additive package present in the oil is available to protect engine internals through the winter storage period.

2

Make sure the gas in tank is fresh and is either regular or middle grade unleaded, not premium. Premium unleaded turns bad the quickest of the three. Fresh means gas that was pumped within the last couple of weeks, not months. If you have a way to siphon out and use gas for other things in the spring, then completely top off the tank. Otherwise, having about a gallon left works best.

3

Drain the gas left in the carburetor bowls. If the bike has a petcock with an "OFF" position simply turn the lever to "off" and run the bike until it dies from lack of gas ( several minutes). Many bikes have automatic shut-off petcocks (vacuum), so you will have to open a drain screw on the bottom of the carb bowls to empty them. Have the bike out on open pavement and loosen each drain screw several turns. After the gas has stopped dripping tighten each screw back snug.

4

Get the battery situated so that you will be able to charge it about every three weeks. Either pull the battery out of the bike, or make sure you can hook charger cables up while the battery is still in the bike. I am not a fan of any chargers meant to be hooked up constantly, called trickle, or maintenance chargers. Modern batteries need to be recharged with enough amperage to actively bubble the fluid. Fifteen minutes using a six amp charger, or ninety minutes using a two amp charger, will work just fine.