It is almost Spring. Darkness arrives later each evening, and the temperatures are increasing.
Time to discover if the fuel stabiliser and the liberal coating of Scottoiler FS365 Complete Bike Protector have done their thing while the Yamaha Tracer 9GT has been in hibernation.
Although the temperature does get down into low single-digit centigrade, the garage is dry, so I’m not expecting any issues. However, as the Yamaha’s tank has spent the cold winter months full of water-absorbing E10 fuel, I’m hoping the fuel stabiliser I added before nap time has done its magic.
Getting It Ready
The decision to put the Tracer 9GT away was based on being lazy and only wanting to clean one bike through winter. The KTM gives better protection from the elements than the Tracer, and it has dimmable 9,000-lumen riding lights.
If they didn’t see me coming, it would have been because they didn’t look. Even on the lowest setting (20%) which I use for town riding, the LED auxiliary lights are intense.
The Tracer was subjected to the normal winter storage routine, before being tucked into a corner of the garage for the dark and soggy months.
I added the requisite amount of Liqui Moly Motorbike Benzin-Stabilistor to my tank full of moisture sucking E10 fuel and ran the bike for 10 minutes to ensure the fuel stabiliser was in the whole fuel system and not just the tank.
Next, came hours of cleaning to ensure that I wasn’t going to trap any road crap under the covering of Scottoiler FS365 that I was using to stop any possible corrosion.
Ensuring that the tyres were resting on bits of spare carpet and not the concrete garage floor, I connected the Optimate charger to the battery, covered the Tracer in an old bedsheet and waited for spring.
At this point, Roger was pointing out that FS365 is not normally considered a barrier oil, and asked if I should have been using ACF-50 as he did on his Africa Twin.
Good point. The only problem was I was out of ACF-50 and had 10 litres of FS365 in the garage, so I decided to experiment.
FS365 vs ACF-50
Which of these is better is a subject we have covered in depth before. ACF50 and the equally good XCP are barrier protectors, while FS365 is a mineral oil-based corrosion inhibitor that works on a chemical level to stop the process of corrosion.
They are different solutions to the same problem, both with distinct advantages over the other. If you want the details, click here for the article.
My garage is dry, but it does get cold in there. Rarely does the temperature drop below zero, but ACF-50 is a bugger to remove if it is cold.
Come spring, especially if you have ridden through winter, you will want to remove the ACF-50 and all the crap it is holding on to.
FS365 is easier to apply and as the Tracer wasn’t going anywhere for a few months, the alkenes in the FS365 mineral oil would stop any corrosion starting. Or that was my theory, anyway.
After a thorough wash with Fuchs Silkolene Wash Off to remove all the biodegradable FS365 from the bike, I can’t see any indication of rust or other corrosion, which makes me happy.
I can appreciate that the Tracer might have looked this way if I’d put it away clean and not covered it in FS365. Then again, without a corrosion protector perhaps the Tracer would have furred up and looked a sorry state.
The threat from hydrochloric acid (rock salt and water mixed) hasn’t gone yet, as the salt deposits can hang around until late April. So, having given the Tracer its out-of-hibernation bath, I’ve applied a new coating of FS365, just in case.
First Press of the Button
As with corrosion protection, it is difficult to prove if the fuel stabiliser – in my case Liqui Moly Benzin-Stabilisator – was needed while the bike was in storage.
Assuming the bike starts and runs through the tank of E10 fuel containing the stabiliser without any issues, was that because of the stabiliser or would it have done that anyway?
Unless there is another Tracer with a tank of the same E10 fuel parked in the same garage, I have no way of knowing.
What I do know is that the Tracer sprang into life with the first press of the starter button. There was no sluggish turnover thanks to the Optimate or the need to pump the throttle. Just a single press of the starter and the bike leapt into life.
How is the E10 fuel?
One test I could complete was to use up the tank of E10 fuel and see if there were any problems.
If there is water in the fuel, it will sink to the bottom of the tank and jam up the fuel system almost as soon as you start the bike.
As that hadn’t happened, the next thing was to see if the E10 fuel was giving crisp, clean performance after sitting in the garage for three (or is it four?) months.
Thankfully the Tracer was due at Webbs of Lincoln for a recall check on the throttle, which gave me the perfect excuse to find out. Happily, having been in storage had done nothing to dampen the enjoyment that the Tracer can extract from a tank of E10 fuel.
As to whether the fuel stabiliser had helped … Who knows? What I do know is that I’ll do the same thing again next year as I can’t find a reason not to.
What Next?
Now the Tracer is back, I’ll take that for two days of training in Wales with Jewell Motorcycle Training. That will chew through what is left of the OEM tyres.
Ready and waiting on the shelf next to the Tracer are a set of Dunlop Mutants. I know a couple of other people that have fitted these to a Tracer 9GT and have nothing but good things to say about them. When you consider they are replacing Bridgestone T32s, that is high praise indeed.
One thing is for certain though. Despite riding the KTM through winter, getting a motorcycle out of the garage and ready for Spring, is a lot more fun than putting it away for Winter.
