honestly? better than if i brought them inside for winter. and really... it gets a lot colder than 0*C here in wisconsin.

 

No, the oil does not warm very well durring winter months. after an actual ride your oil is hot enough to boil water. even if you idle at 5800 RPM, the oil will never get hot enough to boil water. the engine has to work in order to heat the oil to a temperature suitable to proper crankcase environment.

 

So, since the engine oil is not hot enough to boil water, would it not generate the steam/condensation as you mentioned earlier? If it is hot enough to boil water, whether winter or summer, wouldn't the air in the crankcase (that generated said condensation earlier) be there just the same? I appreciate the insight on the subject and apologize for the thread jack.

 

chill a glass once. lightly heat it with a bic lighter. what do you see? water droplets. now put it back in the freezer. what happens? frozen water droplets. heat it back up, what happens? More water droplets, sometimes they fall. put it back in the freezer. repeat and you'll see how much water can accumulate.

same thing happens in a crank case.

 

I see your point. Do you do anything with your battery? Disconnect or otherwise?

 

well, i take it out of the bike and put it on a shelf in the garage... i just worry about the cables coming into contact with the batt terminals... i shouldn't but i do. besides, for me it's 2 screws... not that big a deal, right?!!

 

You can idle at 20k if you want to...it will not heat the engine the same as if there were a load on it (like riding).
The issue with idling and shutting it down is the moisture gets repeatedly mixed into the oil which breaks it down sooner which limits the effectiveness of the oil.

Also, the moisture is formed naturally once the metal on the engine starts to reduce to the air temp. If you only idle and shut down, you are, in essence, adding more moisture into the crank then if you were to ride for a while.

The coolant temp is irrelavent here as that's controlled by a t-stat.

Engine oil, however, is run through out the engine. If you never put a load on the engine, the oil will never truly reach operating temp because the colder winter air is preventing that as it contacts the cases, valve cover, etc.

Ever look into a tailpipe a few minutes after the engine is shut down? See the condensation? That is exactly what's happening inside your engine....difference is the internals of the engine have all sorts of nooks and crannies for moisture to collect.


EDIT: In a bit late with the post.

 

Noted. I'll change my oil in the spring before riding again.

 

good idea.

i gotta tell ya, the very best thing you can do for your bike during the winter solstice is just to leave it alone! you don't even need to change the oil before putting her to sleep... well, unless it's really bad... in your case, you're going to need to change that oil before you do any serious duty with it. depending on how much use your oil has on it now you could probably get away with doing a really lazy commute for an hour to burn that water away and continue on your way until your next scheduled OCI...

 

take the battery out over storage and place on a trickle charger, if you have one (good investment) otherwise it WILL drain down to a point were it will not start your bike. Also keeping it in a place were its not prone to freezing temps, such as inside,will make your load cells happy