I couldn't believe the manual says every 8k miles, and just inspect it at 4k, I make sure it says 8k everytime I open it. I changed mine at 600 miles, then again with the Repsol synthetic blend at 4k. I'll probably end up changing it every 4k miles. 3k miles seems extremely soon, most of what I've read says it's a waste of $ to do every 3k miles with todays vehicles being injected and machined better. The wife's caddy and my vette have the digital displays of when to change the oil, and I don't think either has ever dropped below 10% before 5k miles.

 

It's not necessarily the amount of oil, as much as it is the consistency and chemical make up. Synthetic oils really aren't "synthetic" as much as the base of thei oil is made up of a much higher quality. Regular oils have a cheaper base, and additives to give it stability over time. With shearing and heat, it chemically decomposes the oil until it can't provide the necessary barrier. When that happens you get metal on metal contack of a greater frequency.

If you're serious about oil, or just confuse as heck, as I am/was, Check out the Bob is the oil guy forums:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi

It takes a huge amount of patientce to learn all the acronyms, like OCI (Oil Change Interval) but that is where truth lies... I've never had a good answer about oil that I was satisfied with until I went there. Just there are so many differing opinions, only when you have a dense group will you come to some conclusion; and most car/bike forums only touch on oil here and there.

I have satisfied myself with dino oil on my car at 3000 miles, but haven't picked a OCI for the bike yet... but I had heard people doing changes every 1000 miles even!!! so I'm a bit confused.

 

I'm sorta **** about maintenance I change mine every 1500 miles and filter every 3000 miles.

Dino oil's cheap anyway. I run Castrol 10W40 bike oil costs me $14CAD for 4L and filters are $10CAD. While I'm changing the oil I look the whole bike over which gives me a chance to stay on top of anything that may become a future problem. Besides, I like playing with my bike and cars so why not ?

 

Since I bought my bike 4 months back i changed the oil once i got it home and since have put 3000 miles on the bike. I just inspected it yesterday and it is still very clean considering the difference between 3000 miles on a car motor compared to the bike. Granted I am using honda's partial synthetic blend (hp4 10-40) in my 95 cbr f3, and dyno oil (valvoline 5-30)in my 95 s-10 with a 4.3 vortec. It seems that even thought the bike is defidently a higher compression motor. but it seems to be a lot cleaner motor than my truck. This is just something I have seen from my limited experience with my bike, but am a techinician in the auto world. Its quiet surprising actually on how clean the oil stays and I can see why the reccommended oil interval is 8000 miles. I do not redline my bike but i do ride it aggressively as well just for record.

 

I change mine every 5,000 miles. Makes it easy to remember, and when I go to change it it's still not that dirty. But I just can't see going a whole 8k without a change. Most of my miles are easy highway miles though, I'm really not that hard on it. It's worked great for me for the last 63,000 miles

 

Every 3K unless you track race your bike, then you should change your oil after each track session/weekend.

 

go to http://hooliganbiketech.dynup.net/ho...frameindex.htm

there is an oil analysis and oil change write up where he sent various types of oil off new and used to get checked

finding
at 5K miles good quality synthetic oil is still protecting just as well as when it went into the bike

the numbers dont lie

 

Thanks for the link baxsom. [sm=interesting.gif]

 

how would one inspect oil anyways at 4k? by looking at the sight glass to see if its dark or dirty???...lol i say just change it.

 

I do mine every 2000-2500 miles MAX. Same story with my car. One of the best things for prolonging the life of an engine is frequent oil changes.