How long before oil causes harm when in storage?

[DVad3r]

Hey guys,

Quick question. How long does oil take to cause harm when let's say a motorcycle is not being used in cold weather? It's time to winterize my bike soon and there are tons of threads/arguements going around about which way is the correct way to do it.

Let's say for example you have a bike that you are putting away, and you changed the oil on it 2 months ago and rode 3000 miles in that time. Lately though you've been riding once a week etc because of the cold weather. How long before the contaminated oil causes harm? 1 week? 2 weeks? 1 month?

There's a lot of guys out there that seem to just keep the old oil in there and change it in the spring...

 

[BassBomb]

id change it after

 

[Greenman]

The oil won't hurt anything, it's the other shit in it that might do some damage. I'd just run the engine for a little bit every month or so and change the oil come spring.