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oil change in the fall or do it in the spring

Just make sure the bike gets up to full operational temperature before you put it away. If the bike gets good and hot any H2O in the engine case will evaporate. If you're going to take a winter ride make it longer than 5 or 10 miles.

5-10 miles will not bring bike to full operational temp that would include "cooking off" condensation vapors. nor will it recharge the battery from what it took to start it.
better to make it 20+.
 
I'm with MPMARTY. I changed my oil at 3,000 which was about 250 ago. I'll ride till there is salt on the roads and park the bike at that time. When I hit 3,000 next spring I'll change the oil. Before I park it for the winter I will fill the tank, add Stabil, run it for a couple minutes and park it in the corner.
 
you 3K oil change guys kill me.
ever do an oil analysis of your barely used oil? if so, you'd find that its good for many thousands of more miles. you gain nothing by changing it that frequently, and it is a cost both to you and the environment.
yeah, i know, you've got the right to do it however you want. but why?
 
you 3k oil change guys kill me.
Ever do an oil analysis of your barely used oil? If so, you'd find that its good for many thousands of more miles. You gain nothing by changing it that frequently, and it is a cost both to you and the environment.
Yeah, i know, you've got the right to do it however you want. But why?

+1
 
So, ride it 2000 more, change the oil, and park it.

it's not an airhead. he would really prefer to ride another 5K miles, then change the oil. 3K oil changes are nonsensical on modern bikes that have double the oil capacity of an antique.

Let me preface this by saying, I have no real opinion on the matter and am genuinely trying to learn; but do you change your oil in your airheads every 3000; but your modern bikes 6000? Is it because of the "double the oil capacity"?

you 3K oil change guys kill me.
ever do an oil analysis of your barely used oil? if so, you'd find that its good for many thousands of more miles. you gain nothing by changing it that frequently, and it is a cost both to you and the environment.
yeah, i know, you've got the right to do it however you want. but why?

..or, is it because of the quality of the oil? So, do you then run all your bikes at 6000?

I'm willing to same some money by stretching it out, but if you've actually done some analysis on oil degradation, I'm more than willing to listen. I usually shoot for 3000 on a daily rider ("antique" bikes for me), but sometimes it's 4000.

For some reason, I have deja vu typing this.. and I'm not being facetious.
 
Nathan,
i have not done an analysis on my oil, but have spoken with quite a few that have= mostly some Pelicans,and all are serious gear heads. Blackstone Labs has consistently reported back that on oil changes done around 6,000 miles on oilheads (R1100Ss, primarily) are still showing excellent additive & base characteristics, estimated to be good for closer to 10,000 miles than 6,000. That's good enough for me. That, and following BMW's recommendation for 6K changes. if i'm mostly touring mode, i will often run over 7K miles before a change.
i would like to see some reports on airheads. i think your estimates on the recommended need for 3K changes on airheads being based on both smaller capacity sump and lesser quality oil at time of production is dead on.
 
Hmmmmm

I follow 2 motorcycle forums, 3 F-150 forums and 2 Impala forums. The oil change frequency comes up a lot. There are those that insist that it should be changed at 3,000, 5,000, 6,000 and even 10,000 miles. There is a common thread in all of them. The oil change interval seems to work fine for all of them with no problems regardless of the interval even though many of the vehicles have hundreds of thousands of miles on them. http://millionmilevan.com/
 
Let me preface this by saying, I have no real opinion on the matter and am genuinely trying to learn; but do you change your oil in your airheads every 3000; but your modern bikes 6000? Is it because of the "double the oil capacity"?

The last airhead I owned (an '86 R80RT) got changes every 5K. Don't remember if that's what BMW recommended or not.
 
It would be interesting to do an oil analysis on some 1,000 mile oil out of a bike that is only driven on 20+ mile cycles. I have to think the contaminant level would be negligible.

What I used to do with my airhead, some years, was drop the oil hot, put in some inexpensive 10W40 motorcycle oil, and not change the filter. After a few spring rides, I would do my usual oil/filter change.
 
Theres a recent Blackstone report on a R1100R using BMW 20-50 oil that you can read on Bob the oil guy web site. Looks line dino oil was used. Results very good and lots of life left in the oil after 6000 miles.
 
I would be willing to sell my 3,000 mile oil to you guys at a deep discount. Say a buck a quart plus shipping. I'll even keep the original containers. Now thats a deal too good to pass up.
 
I would be willing to sell my 3,000 mile oil to you guys at a deep discount. Say a buck a quart plus shipping. I'll even keep the original containers. Now thats a deal too good to pass up.

Ewwwww, yucky. Your nasty R oil in my K. Probably give me some ugly R trait like throttle bodies going out of sync or surging. Thanks but no thanks to your old fluids!:D
 
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