How to store your scooter in winter in Canada! Scootart
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
- Here’s a tutorial on how to properly store your scooter in our harsh winters in Canada!
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#vespa #scooters #winter #winterstorage #scooterstorage - Komedie
Thanks for the tips! Glad to have found your channel, I'll have to drop by your shop some time. Also cool you are posting in both French and English, I'm watching both! 😁✌️
I never had a single problem leaving my Vespa Primavera's battery connected to a battery tender all year. Years of trouble free use.
You have been lucky!
Do you use your bike all year or you need to store it for 6 months in winter?
Because we can’t count the number of people who fries their batteries every year after a winter storage with the charger plugged on all the time! ;-)
You mentioned only plugging in the battery tender three, four times over the course of the winter. So once a month if it'll be inactive say November thru March? Also regarding the fuel, someone told me if I just took it outside, started the engine and gave it a few revs every couple of weeks that would work too, any thoughts? Thanks for the vid
Hi! Thanks for commenting. For the battery tender, well over the years, we sells hundreds of batteries at the beginning of the season, and a lot of time we get the comment « but I don’t understand, I plugged it all winter ». This is not bad officially, but it will wear out the battery prematurely because it will make it works all winter. After two season the battery is exhausted, worn out. Often it will have a solid 12V, but no amps left, this is like water pressure. The pool is full but no water pressure.
So the battery, if stored in normal room temperature, it won’t really discharge. You just have to keep it at full charge a few times during the dead season. It will be enough to keep it in good condition. You can do it once a month if you want, it won’t be excessive either. Just avoid to plug it all winter long.
Finally to start it every couple of weeks is the worst thing you can do to your bike. Don’t do that. Leave it alone all winter. The reason is simple. The motor runs rich on the choke when you start it. That means an excess of gas that has to go straight into your motor oil. (Assuming you have a 4 stroke engine, a two stroke is not the same issue). So it usually takes about 30 mins when the engine reached its normal operating temperature that the excess of oil will evaporate in the oil.
So if you don’t ride the bike, you might dilute the oil with the gas and that can damage the motor. It will also flood the Spark plug. But the worst, it will drain the battery for sure! Because every time you start your bike, you will use about 15-20% of the charge of the battery. Then the motor recharge the battery only at high RPM, so on idle, basically you don’t recharge it at all…
Unless you plug it on the fender, you will drain the battery quickly trying to start it every 2 or 3 weeks.
So no, don’t start it, leave it stored for all winter in a warm garage.
To be honest, for the 5 or 6 months that you won’t use it, if the bike is stored at room temp, the gas will be fine in spring. You won’t have any issues at all. Even if you don’t really recharge the battery. It’s not long enough to damage something.
Thanks :-)
@@scootartinc6611 Thanks for the clarification, it'll be stored inside a cold garage but I'll bring the battery inside for the winter and just plug it into the tender once a month as suggested. It has a full tank now so I'll just leave it at that. Thanks for your suggestions, I was ready to go get fuel stabilizer before I stumbled upon your vid!
Very well said regarding Stabil.. I think in Montreal, the only gas company that sells gas without ethanol is Shell 95 (or whatever the highest is)..
In Montreal, gas stations without ethanol were as in November 2022: Shell 91, Ultramar 91, Canadian Tire 91, at least.
What a fantastic video. Thanks for that! I will return my fuel stabilizer then!
Will any red pump gas from Shell do the trick for the gas?
Should I lube any parts of the scooter before storing? Which lube?
For an indoor garage I heard that a bed sheet is good because it will allow it to breathe and not retain moisture. True?
My building’s indoor garage doesn’t allow me to wash the Vespa with water inside. Is there a place you recommend or any dry washing products?
Thanks a lot for this!
Hi Arthur, thanks for the commenting on this video!
Well, we don’t have to be more religious than the pope with that, the goal is to preserve the mechanic itself from trouble in winter. However for the body, in your indoor garage, it should be OK. But it could be very dusty in winter with the salt on the roads drying on the cars, so I would suggest to use a good quality cover, I don’t think the moisture is an issue in your case.
Now for the clean up, you can do it dry, we suggest an express shine type of wax, available at any good car retail store. Something that you spray on a wet coat, then wipe it off with with a clean microfiber rag. You will clean the bike (only if the bike is not very very dusty, the dust might scratch the paint).
For the wheels, you can use a wheel and tire cleaner. we usually use Super Clean, but it’s a strong and nasty stuff and if you don’t wipe it all completely, it might fade the paint on the wheel rims, but it does a great job to remove heavy stains.
For the gas, Shell is OK, where are you from? Canada or USA?
In Canada, Petro-Canada is fine too in the premium.
You can check in your region which one offer has without ethanol because it might depend of where you are!
Thanks :-D
@@scootartinc6611 I’m in Montréal! I showed up in your store a few months ago with my wife to get the side pegs for my brand new Vespa Red Edition and we chatted briefly. Not sure you remember!
Is there a dry cleaning spray brand you recommend? I’ll get whatever you recommend.
The Shell gas I filled the thank with was their red 91 grade: enough?
Thanks again for all the support!
@@scootartinc6611 In Quebec, Petro-Canada 91 had ethanol as of November 2022.
I bring mine in the living room on cardboard.
You probably have a wonderful wife too! 😉