Hi

I have a new Wee Strom just coming up for it's 4k service ,everything's fine but I noticed today the oil had dropped below the lower level. Is this normal to be using oil in a new bike ?

Thanks for any advice

Neil

If the wee strom is anything like it's big brother ,the sight glass for the oil can be very misleading and you can be fooled into believing that the bike is burning oil .
The best way to be certain about the oil level ,is to always park the bike on the centre stand in the same spot [when at home] and take your reading after the bike has been stood for a while .
A new bike may also burn a little oil for the first few thousand miles until the engine is bedded in ,if it's not excessive , I wouldn't worry too much .

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Should,nt worry , i have 28000m on mine and have had no problems. Just back from 7000m across USA and topped up with 250ml . Great bike, ride safe . SAILOR BROWN

The DL650 manual is very specific about how to check the oil. Run the engine for a few minutes, turn it off and wait for 3 minutes. Then either holding the bike or put on its center stand, you'll get an accurate reading. This assumes that the oil change was also performed according to the manual's specifications which require a tricky balance between estimated starting amount and minute amounts of topping it off until you're there.

Don't use anything but synthetics. They virtually never breakdown over time or use, only get dirty. Tests have shown the regular oil barely makes it past a 1,000 miles.

I have 20K miles on mine (an '08) and it still runs likes a new bike. No leaks of any kind. An incredible piece of engineering.

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Paul H. Smith
Paul@GlobalBrand.com
(818) 679-0332
Skype: paul.h.smith

That's an interesting comment about regular mineral oil.
I am a believer in synthetic oil ,but I'd like to read the test report ,do you have a link ?

__________________
Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

Sure, here's one of the best and also one of the first indepth studies. It was conducted and written by my good friend, Curt Scott. Here's the link: Synthetic Oil: Rx For Long Engine Life, by Curt Scott - GETAHELMET.COM

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Paul H. Smith
Paul@GlobalBrand.com
(818) 679-0332
Skype: paul.h.smith

This is how I check it (without a centerstand):

Wait a bit after turning engine off, then put the bike on level surface, go to the right side, bend your knees to duck down, grab the right handle & use it to pull the bike to a stable, upright position.

You will need almost no force at all to keep it that way, once you´ve got it positioned like that (and that also tells you the bike is now 100% straight). Then look at the oil window, keeping in mind your eyes will probably be a little higher, so you´ll need to check carefully, what oil level corresponds to the F-marking. May sound more complicated than it is, takes me about 10 seconds to do it. Just make sure the ground is really level. And also be careful, if you havent handled bikes with this much weight before!

In Finland, Suzuki recommends using mineral engine oil, like Motul 5100 (and change quite often, oil + filter every 6000kms). Probably nothing wrong with synthetic oil itself, long as its meant for a 4-stroke MC, so your clutch will work okay. But the main reason for this recommendation is that here we typically keep the bikes stored for 5-6 months every year, and this type of oil is thought to give better protection for the engine during storage. For areas, where you ride more or less all year, it could be different.

The SV/SFV/DL650 engine does not normally consume a lot of oil, at least not the oil type mentioned before. If riding long distances on the motorway with very high rpm, then the level could drop a little, but still you normally dont have to add it within the 6000km change interval.

I have a 2008 Strom 650 with 78,000km on the clock. After the first 10,000km I have always used semi-synthetic oil and change it every 3,000km and the filter every 6,000.

At 76,000 I had the compression checked by my local Suzuki dealer and they reported identical readings in the two cylinders and that the compression was like a new bike. They attributed it to my oil change regime.

I find that if I do prolonged riding at speeds consistently over 120kph it uses about half a litre between changes. Otherwise it is barely noticeable. When I am touring it sometimes means an oil change every 4 days, but I have always been able to find a bike shop that will let me use their facilities if I buy the oil from them. It's probably overkill - but it works for me.

Well, that is a very bold statement and I hope other Vstrom owners IGNORE it, because for a start unless you know what you are doing with breaking in a Japanese motor, you really need to pay attention to what the owners manual says.

As for the statement about 1000 miles as the max for 'regular' oil well I would like to know what you call regular because I bet it is not the same as what I call regular. Now, if you had mentioned MINERAL oil, without additives, then we need to talk about brand names etc.

Oil is a very special subject and unless you know motors, you should not just use any old oil.

I can state for a fact I BROKE in my Vstrom on MINERAL oil and did not change to semi synthetic until I reached 20,000km with no issues at all. And, the reason I changed to semi synth was because I could not find any straight mineral oil at that time.


Oh, to the OP, as mentioned above you need to keep the bike level and have warm oil before checking(which is a real pain by yourself). If you change the oil yourself, always change the filter(why put new oil into a dirty filter) and put in 2.7 liters, which is about 2.7 quarts. If you do fast hard hot running it will use some oil, but not much. At the end of the oils life(around 4-5000 miles) it does seem to burn it a tad quicker I have found

Merry festive season
TravellingStrom

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