I think it depends on how long your rides will be. The biggest threat to a bike over the winter is the battery going Kaput and gas evaporating and turing to sludge in your carbs.

Oh that and the salt on the roads.

If you ride enough to fill the tank once a month I'd say you'd be fine.

Yeah , I haven't winterized mine the last couple years , I'll just go out and ride it every couple of weeks for at least an hour , and make sure to top off the tank on the way home . And watch the chain . All the salt and moisture ...

I too live in NC and just ride year round. Screw winterizing.

If you really can't ride year round or just don't care to, there are very few places in the country that the roads are impassable all winter. If you set up a battery tender and can ride once a week or every other week, you will be fine. The ability to park indoors makes a huge difference though.

If you dont winterize I would still recommend using stabil in the tank. Especially depending on where it's stored. Last thing u need is to head out for a ride and find out the gas in ur tank and in ur fuel line is full of moisture.

Plus if you do put it in, its not gonna hurt to ride w/ the stabil in it if u need too.

Damn I was going to ask the same question. But my kat will be in a shed when I cant ride, so it will be pretty cold. Guess I'll get the battery tender and some stabil.

Remember that you should remove the battery or you run the risk of it freezing and cracking. I will be storing my bike in a shed this winter and I plan on changing the oil, adding Stabil and pulling out the battery. Hopefully I will be able to ride a couple of times a month all year long.

Cool thanks for the heads up.

Winterize?

The biggest parts of starting it up over the winter is getting the oil & engine hot enough to boil off any condensation that might have built up (including in the engine-oil, in the exhaust, in the various passages). If you store in a basement and don't have a door directly to the outside you can readily push it through, you don't want to run it up -- because it will eat all the breathable oxygen in the room very very fast (less than a minute).

The primary concerns when storing it are:
(A) ensuring the fuel isn't going to turn into a gummy mess in the carbs (draining the carbs or running them dry will prevent this);
(B) ensuring the fuel in the tank isn't going to biodegrade over the winter, and contaminate everything come spring, as well as ensuring it won't evaporate too many of it's light hydrocarbons (hence fuel stabilizer);
(C) making sure the tires don't get lopsided (pumping them up to max & rotating them regularly, or simply getting them up off the floor will help keep this from happening);
(D) protecting the rest of the bike from rust, needless condensation and snow, and other gremlins (basement should take care of that, expect possibly mice -- cover the airbox and exhaust openings with aluminum foil or plastic wrap);
(E) keeping the battery from discharging excessively (each time it drains down low, it loses 25 - 40% of it's long term storage capacity -- thus a battery tender jr. or other 0.8 AH or lower floating trickle charger that can be left connected all the time).

How much you need to do to make all the above happen varies with where the bike will be stored, the local weather, etc.

KNOW THIS:
Certain types of plastic left in contact with the tires can cause very accelerated VOC release, resulting in hard, slick spots on the tires that will never be right again. Some types of carpeting have these same plastics in their threads or backing. If parking on carpeting or plastic (sheeting, tiles, etc), put several layers of paper between the tires and the floor -- or get the tires off the floor all-together.
A 600cc Kat engine running will consume 3/10ths of a liter of air for each RPM the engine turns. Thus, at idle, it's sucking down about 330 liters of air a minute.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

Hey, ... shut up !!

If I were to take my Kat out (at least) once per week for an actual ride for about an hour (not just starting it and letting it idle), would that be often enough so that your points A-E don't become problems?

Note that my Kat is always parked on cardboard over a finished cement floor, and that my basement has a single garage door that leads to a rear driveway (i.e. easy access to roll out and ride! )

As long as you burn through a tank of fuel every 3 to 4 weeks, and/or use a fuel stabilizer, that should be fine. Don't ride on black ice or anything else that will compromise your safety -- just letting it idle for 20 minutes in freezing or close-to-freezing weather is usually enough to satisfy all the requirements (just let it idle outside). You can always take a kitchen temp probe to the hose coupling at the oil cooler to decide if it's gotten warm enough while just idling away -- you're looking for 250 to 300 degrees (F) at that spot.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

I suggest you all send me and DeeDub your bikes for the winter. We'll will employ the traditional "SoCal" winterizing technique.

If I do that, can I join the iron butt club then too ?