Well, it's that time of year again...the -35 below zero is well on it's way. As such, I need to winterize the Hawk for about 7-8 months give or take.

My questions are

1. How improtant it is to drain the carbs?
2. Is there a fuel cut off switch that I can simply turn off and run the bike out of gas?
3. If not, and I have to, how do I drain the float bowls?

 

holy **** youre in a much colder part of canada than i am, lol. i was just hoping to fire the bike up once a week or every other week and let it run till it hits operating temp and call that winterizing. i guess you should run some stabilizer in the fuel and take the bike for a boot to make sure it mixes in. there should be a petcock under the tank, when you remove the tank its should be there. thats what i read i havent checked myself but from what ive seen you should have one

 

#1 add fuel stabalizer & keep the tank full.
#2 there is a drain screw on the bowl or you can pull the vacuum line off the
front cylinder that controls the petcock, fire the bike up and run it until it dies. ( you may want to cover the hole where the vac line was ). this will get most of the fuel out of the bowl.
#3 skidoo sell a light fogging oil if you want to coat the cylinders - it sprays down the carbs. ( do this as you do #2 )
#4 you can lightly coat the exterior metal surfaces with wd-40
& wash and a coat of wax on the paint.
#5 over inflate your tires if it's not on stands.
#6 connect a battery tender.
#7 wait 'til spring.

tim

 

Thats pretty much it.

 

If you're not certain what you have you'll want to make sure you have an appropriate coolant mixture for the temps your bike will be experiencing over the winter.
It seems cold in your area so definitely not pure water!
Someone from your area will know what to use or just look it up on a coolant manufacturers website.
You don't want the coolant to freeze and screw up the works.

 

^^ Do not fire up the bike once a week and bring it up to operating temps...this will do more harm than foul.

from constant temperature changes u will get "sweating" on any metal surface, which will end up in the oil on the inside of the engine. u running the bike will just mix up the oil and water and spread the water all over your engine internals. no good. the bike oil wont reach high enough temperature to burn off the water content by idling. only good proper riding will do that.

this is the reason u change the oil after its sat for a while.

 

Move to southern California where you can ride all year long

 

Winterizing? Today was the first day in three months that they didn't forcast rain and temps less than mid 90's, so I rode to work. (South Florida). It's just now that we can suit up and not have the sweat pouring off at a stop light. I feel for you all in the cold parts. It's gotta suck having to put the SH away for awhile.

 

Thanks for all the help so far guys, I had not planned on starting the bike throughout the winter. Let's be honest, at -35 I only go out when I absolutely have to. As for winterizing, I had planned on

1. Changing the oil - I was thinking about using Motul
2. Putting the bike up on spool stands - with a bar through the axle
3. Removing the battery and putting it on a tender
4. Draining the fuel out of the carbs.

As for the last point, can't I just shut off the petcock in order to stop the flow of fuel from the tank, start the bike and let it run out of gas?? I would think this would be a much easier way to drain the bowls.

 

I would wait until spring to change the oil though, since oil also has a shelf life and will gather water even as it sits. Fresh oil in the spring anyways so why change it to sit.

 

with temps of -35 i doubt any sort of varment is able to survive, but one thing that i learned the hard was was to somehow plug your exhaust and any sort of intake. Here in New England mice like to build homes in annoying places. Just my $.02

 

Draining the carbs isn't all that hard but it can be a little messy. You need a good light to spot the drain screws on the float bowls, especially drain screw in the float bowl for the carb for the rear cylinder. Be sure there is nothing in the vicinity that could ignite gas vapours. Use a long screwdriver that fits well in the slot of the drain screw. Loosen the screw and the gas in the float bowl will trickle out the little spout on the bottom of the float bowl. I've tried to drain the gas into a container but I've had no success. I usually let it drain into a rag. After the gas stops flowing, tighten the screw. Don't muscle it. Remove the rag.
Winter in Canada is the time to do maintenance, go to bike shows, watch MotoGP videos and read motorcycle related material.