I expected the two and half month winter we had last year not the 5-ish months we had this year, so I didn't do as much as maybe I should have...
I rode her for 20 minutes or so back in early November to get her nice and warmed up, filled up completely and added Sta-Bil (with Shell gas, to boot). Rode another 5 or 6 miles to make sure the Sta-Bil got into the carbs and put her away in the garage with some wood under the tires. I pulled the battery and attached it to a Battery Tender Jr. for about a day and a half, then disconnected it and kept it stored in my basement (which is always between 60 and 65, so wine and beer work well down there
). Didn't bother doing anything with the carbs, but I probably will next year - she only had 480 miles on her when I put her away this year so I didn't figure the float bowls would be in awful shape.
De-winterizing basically consisted of tossing her up on the stands for a few minutes to get the battery back in (and theoretically to allow the fluids to get back to where they should be and not on the left side of the tanks), and she started right up.
Mine idles like a cranky beast under 50 degrees, so I had to let her sit for quite a while with the choke on before she'd warm up enough to tolerate throttle, but that's normal (considering it was 36 when I fired her up and left for work last Thursday). Some shims should fix that problem. I had planned on an oil change after work Thursday, but the office got the best of me and I didn't make it to the store in time for a filter. That'll happen whenever the next riding day is - possibly Monday.
No problems at all, though I'm only about 15 miles into the season. It was snowing again today
