Winter storage help

[darthbane71]

Hey everybody. I've got a 93 K75RT that I absolutely love. I bought it for practicality and the fuel injection. After fixing it up a bit, on the first ride I wasn't sold on it. I kept going back to my sport bike. Now, I ride the BMW every day I can, and only take the sport bike out to keep the carbs clean.

Anyway, last week we had a big storm with crazy winds here in Illinois. My bike was covered and on its center stand like it almost always is (I have not had problems with smoking when it is on the sidestand however). But a big gust knocked the bike over in the night and almost fell on my car. It also completely ruined my top case.

So my question is, for the winter (since I unfortunately have no better place to put it) can I keep it on the side stand to keep it from falling over? Would I have to do anything special in spring to remedy the oil seepage?

Sorry for the long post!
Thanks!

I've included a picture of the bike from my recent trip to the river roads of central IL just for kicks.

[F14CRAZY]

Without any experience on the subject, I suppose in the spring you could remove the plugs, crank it over to blow out the hole then put the plugs back in.

Nothing wrong with oil in the cylinders over winter anyway

[Chaos]

Non issue.  The only oil that can seep in is what's in the cylinder bore, just a couple drops, the bulk of the oil will stay in the sump. 

[darthbane71]

Awesome. That's the answer I was looking for. Thanks!

[Elipten]

What happened to the lower part of the fairing that runs down to the bottom of the rider's foot?

[darthbane71]

The previous owner dropped it and tore it off

[Elipten]

I've thought about cutting them off to reduce the heat

[mw074]

I have one that is cut off. No heat issues at all.

[darthbane71]

I am seriously contemplating cutting the other side off for looks/cooling.

[Elipten]

MW074. Can you please post a picture?

[mw074]

Sure.

[Elipten]

Very nice!  That is some serious cutting!  Did the Russel seat raise you so harder to get the feet down at stops?

[billday]

Is that a K1 front fender?

[mw074]

This Russell seat had no effect on the reach to ground, although I have had some that have raised it higher. That is a R1100RT front fender that I made the brackets to fit. When I take it off again, I will post pictures of the mounts and post them.

[orforester]

There are several more things you would want to do prior to putting you K Bike away for winter.  Lots of articles around telling you what and how to do it. Probably one here.  I would use steel wool in the muffler after using a little shot of WD -40 in the pipe.  Steel wool to keep critters out.  A little 2 stroke oil in each cylinder doesn't hurt and is burned up quickly upon starting.  Change the oil and filter prior to storage.  Now the controversial idea.  I fill the tank with Non-Ethanol gas and some Chevron injector cleaner concentrate.  Use a board or cardboard under the front tire to get it off the ground a bit.  Again I know everyone has their own ideas and article to read and follow. 

Fortunately I have covered winter parking and can ride at least every couple of weeks, or start them, so don't spend much time on storage.

[darthbane71]

Actually yeah, I've done all the stuff you mentioned, I use seafoam instead of chevron. I guess I shouldn've specified that I'd already prepped it for winter. My only question was about the side stand.

However I swapped places with my sport bike so now the BMW is comfortably on its center stand next to the garage

[johnny]

greetings...

had my motobricks outside for most of their lives... always put my center stand on a piece of 1/8 plate steel x 6" x 18"...

bolted to the steel plate a section of 7' unistrut... safety latch ratchet tie downs between the frame just above the peg plates and the ends of the unitstrut... put a 1" x 6" x 12' piece of wood under the front tior...

put a cover on there that ties at the bottom so it wont blow off... survived delta winds and santana winds no worries...

why 7'... will take up most of a parking space with room for folks to walk around it without walking on it... when you start it up for the first time next season... wipe down the forks with some automatic transmission fluid before you release the ratchet straps cause the suspension will be partially compressed...

j o