Have put the baby to bed, tucked up, hopefully all nice and dry and warm in a winter cocoon. Bought a 60w cupboard dehumidifier from someone I know for 20 quid, bought a thin 12' by12' polythene sheet from Wickes for £1.28, put the dehumidifier by the side-stand, slung the polythene over the bike, followed by several fleece blankets and plugged it in via an analogue timer I happened to have, which is set to switch on for an hour, then off for an hour ad infinitum. The idea there being to halve the running cost . The plan is that the 60 watts with plenty of insulation should keep it at least warmer than ambient temperature and nice and dry as well. Sound like a plan??
I had a similar idea but went down the path of a heating pad that is used for crankcase sumps on air compressors/air conditioning compressors. it keeps the engine at a toasty 45deg. with the whole bike blanketed it keeps most of the bike warm too.
You need no less than 50% Humidity so the classic car brigade say, stops parts drying out and cracking evidently I measure my bike room with a Humidity/Temp gauge off Ebay and it was 63% but the bloody thing only worked for a day and we had been drying a lot of clothes on the radiators in connecting rooms. At £7 it's not worth sending back for a replacement as it will cost me £4 for 2nd class recorded, then the replacement might be the same if it's a dodgy batch which is likely...
My garage is definitely a less than ideal environment. Tools etc get pretty rusty in there, so the dehumidifier is a must I think. This is probably only for Jan and Feb, so can't see too much drying out taking place...
May I say I'd prefer to keep my bike(s) at immediate notice for riding? Mine is sat, washed after my last trip out, just through the garage door ready to go....
Jesus - I feel like I should be burned at the stake, Mine are in the garage....that's it...nothing else...they might get a sniff of the optimate if theyre lucky....
Depends how kind your garage is to your stuff. May have a look at one of those dehumidifiers. Are they noisy? Attract attention from passing scumbags?
Ive gotta say my garage is good - not the biggest - would love more room but its water tight, had the roof done a few years back - its a little draughty but that's probably good for air flow.
Yes, if I had a bone dry garage I wouldn't worry. Just a quiet hum. I doubt it could be heard from outside the garage and if it could, they'd assume it was a freezer .
