oh yea, honda oil and filter. I don't like to mess with wet clutches...

 

That brings me to question...... which way to go. Sorry guys I've been a V-twin guy for years now. My 954 still has the original oil in it. Like I said its got only 1500 miles on it but the oil is old. I need to change it. Do I do OEM oil??? Or a semi Syn. ?? Appreciate all comments.

 

Yeah it needs to be changed. I will be using either Motul 300V or their 5100. Excellent oil but a little pricey.

 

Only 1500 total miles? Wow that's not much at all. Did you do the oil change after the break in period? It's supposed to be done at around 600 miles. If you didn't then you definitely need to. If you did, you'll be fine. Oil doesn't degrade over time like other fluids.

 

To be perfectly honest I bought a couple months ago with 721 miles on it. I have about 1500 on it now. I'm not sure if it was done or not. But its getting done today.

 

How can someone have a bike that is 7-8 years old with only 721 miles on it? Something does not sound right about this. Check the date codes on the tires and see when they were made. If the miles are correct the tires should be original and the date code older than the bike. If the date codes are newer than the year of bike I would question if the miles are correct. If they are original then they need changed too no matter how good the tread looks.

As for the oil change I would drain the oil. Put a cheap filter on it and fill it with cheap oil and run it for a few days. Then drain the oil again, change the filter then fill the bike with whatever oil you plan to use. A bike sitting for that long with the original oil would worry me.

Have you changed the coolant and brake fluid? Both of them should be flushed and changed too.

Post some pics of your bike.

 

I agree. If you don't know if it's been changed then you might as well play it safe and do a oil and filter change. Changing the brake fluid and coolant is really quite easy. There are some really good tutorials on youtube if you want. The best brake fluid change vidoe I've seen is here: http://stores.sportbiketrackgear.com...piegler+Brakes Just go to the bottom and forget the changing the brake line parts.

 

Why do you think low mileage bikes are unheard of ? I just got a 96' CBR600F3 a few monthes ago with 1,175 miles on it and the 01' CBR929RR I just got a few weeks ago had 2,756 miles on it. And I Look on Craigslist all the time and see low mileage bikes, a few monthes ago when I was looking for my 929 I saw an 03' 954 with something like 783 miles on it.

You can tell by looking the bikes over real well if the bikes condition matches the miles the odometer reads, I call it road rash and wind rash. Both my 929 and 600 look like they just came off the showroom floor a few weeks ago, so I know the mileage is accurate, if you saw these bikes up close you would agree.. and they both have all the same stuff on them they left the showroom floor with including the tires, but im not going to change them, i'm just going to be careful with them till they wear out, to make sure they don't shread from the age, they are holding up fine so far though.

 

Mileage on speedo's can be changed on older bikes very easy. Newer digital ones take a little more knowledge but they too can be changed. I would be very suspicious about an older bike with very low mileage.

I also find it odd that people who claim to buy very low mileage bikes never seem to post pictures of them. The date codes/brand tire can help verify if the tires are original to the bike. Why would someone who never rides a bike change the tires? Motorcycle tires are very important and I would not ride on tires over 2 years old.

Personally I would rather have a bike that has been ridden than a bike that has been sitting for the past 7-14 years unless the owner started the bike every couple of weeks to circulate oil in the motor. There is no way to verify if the owner actually ran the bike so I would prefer a bike with more miles on it. You are taking a chance with any motor that has been sitting for long periods of time is more likely to have problems. Read the posts on here about people who purchase bikes that have been sitting and all the problems they have getting them to run correctly.

As for condition, I bet my '03 954 with 23k miles is cleaner than the bike with 721 miles on it. If you to inspect my bike without knowing the mileage I guarantee you would be way off on guessing how many miles were on the bike. I put alot of miles on bikes but keep them cleaner than bikes only a few months old.

 

I'm not going to argue with you.The title from the second owner of my 600F3 said 508 miles when he handed me the title, I am the 3rd owner. The guy I bought it from was 55 years old. The story with my 600F3 is the guy bought it when he was in his mid 40's he got the bike with 508 miles on it. He put it away for winter and didn't store it correctly and it never ran right again and he did not want to bother taking the carbs off to find out why or take it somewhere to have it done because he had alot of other toys at the time and just didn't bother. I bought the bike and 1 out of 3 jets in each of the 4 carbs was completely clogged, i fixed that and it's perfect, thats all that bike needed.

My 929 I just purchased from the original owner, he bought it as a leftover in 2002 and the title he gave me says " NEW " bike, not " USED " and the title reads 2 miles which is what he bought it with brand new. This guy is in his mid 40's and either the bike scared the **** outa him or he just never had the time to enjoy it and just polished it every month and kept it as a collectors item.

No need for me to post pics since you say your 23K bike looks as good as mine, but I will upon request, But you say no one will be able to tell by looking at them how little the bike was used, so why bother.

As far as the tires go on both bikes, yes the tires are original and old, which is exactly the reason I don't go barreling down the highway doing 130 MPH while there on, but I will still use them and just take it easy, I see no reason to throw them out and get new ones, they have zero cracks or dry-rot on them and the guy before he parked it in his garage put down cardboard and parked it on top of the cardboard so the garage floor did not sap all the oils and moisture out of the tires.

This is the ONLY way I will buy a sport bike, from an older guy in his 40's or 50's and with low miles so I know it wasn't beat on, I would NEVER buy a bike a kid owned and I would never buy a sport bike with more than 5000 miles on it....

These will be my last 2 sport bikes I buy anyway and I have no intentions of letting them go, I was really lucky to find them, and I just don't like the way the newer bikes look.

Pics of my F3 are towards the end of this thread in my post there https://cbrforum.com/forum/showthrea...095#post947095, I have not taken any pics of the 929 and only had the pics the original owner sent me before I bought it, but have since deleted them.

Anyway.... back to the original poster's question.When I buy a bike, I don't care if the previous owner says he just changed the oil. What I usually do is buy a cheap oil like Honda GN4 and run that in the bike for no more than 500 miles, so the oil doesn't get a chance to get too dirty or black, then after I drain that, I switch to synthetic.I use either Amsoil MCV 20W-50 or Mobil 1 V-twin 20W-50, I use the slightly thicker oil in bikes without hydraulic lifters because I feel it is better for the gears, bearings, and cam lobes. And I only buy genuine Honda oil filters, I never took a chance to try other brands of oil filters because Honda seems to be very good if not the best thats out there anyway. The bike benefits from the better film strength of the thicker 20W-50 oil.

I change the oil every 1000 miles regardless of how hard or easy I ride and I don't bother trying to measure out 3.9 quarts, I just put the whole 4 quarts in, it's only 3 ounces more than 3.9 that the manual calls for and 3 ounces more oil isn't considered over filling and it isn't going to hurt anything.