I've read winterizing tips including taking the rear tire off the concrete. I keep my ride in my garage on a big piece of board, but what does elevating the tire off the cold concrete do? Would keeping it on a board do the trick or do I need to put it on a stand?

 

When you leave the bike on the kick stand and dont move it for long priods of time in the cold flat spots can form on your tires.

 

did anyone ever get these flat spots or is this just a rumor? please, i would like to read some personal encounters.

 

ya they do happen, i live in minnesota and it gets really cold up here and a friend left his bike in his old garage and the back tire was up but not the front so he replaced the front in th spring. so now i have a piece of ply wood with some old carpet in my shop. the cold air deflates the tire a little bit enough to get a flat spot.

 

Well that was a stupid thing for your friend to do... The "Flat Spots" would have popped right out in the first mile of riding.

This whole flat spot cold weather on concreate bull **** is just that. Bull ****. Don't worry about it. It's not a problem. Keep your tires inflated to PROPER pressure levels (use Nitrogen if you can) durring storage and don't put a thought into flat spots. The only time you should worry about flat spots is when you "flat spot" your tire while riding, meaning, locking up either tire and wearing a flat spot into it.

 

Has anyone tried that on an old car tire? Flatspots?

 

yeah, you'd think they'd happen with a 3500 lbs car, and it does, but they pop right out after a few rotations. It's BS. always has been, always will be. You'll hear it a thousand times more, and people will get all worked up and paranoid about it when they really have nothing to worry about.

 

You could always get some stands if you are concerned, because you can use them anyway for maintenance. I sneak in a ride every couple weeks so I didn't have to winterize.

 

OK well i never said the flat spots were bad i just said that they can and do form when it gets cold out and the bike sits thats all

 

What they are talking about is putting the bike on stands to relieve pressure off the bearings. This idea comes frommotor homes,boat trailer, and car that are in storage or dont get used for many months. The grease in the bearings gets displaced to the point where in one spot there is metal to metal contact with the bearing race, the actual bearings and the bearing cage. This will usually cause minor or major pitting and early failure. Im not sure if sport bike bearings will do this as they are a kind of a sealed unit. If you can ride it once a month your ok.