If you search hard enough, "the internet" probably also has recommendations to dry your cat in a microwave oven!

Personally I fail to see, what's the problem to change oil once in the middle of a 7000 mile trip in Western Europe? It's not like there's any shortage of oil, or service shops. (just my 0.02 of course).

Which of course, is probably the best thing to do....

My DRZ needed an oil change every 2000 miles and even that wasn't a problem in Africa.

Oil changes are easy..... Especially on a strom.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I have a 2008 wee-Strom that has now done 118,000 km and still goes like new. Here in Australia I do long distances, often 1,000 km per day, the highest being 1,666 km in one day. I change the oil and filters in my bikes and my cars at twice the frequency specified by the manufacturer, which means that my Strom gets new oil every 3,000 km and a filter at 6,000. I might stretch the oil out to 4,000 if I am in a remote area nowhere near a town.

My thinking is the opposite to some of the other posters. These days long service intervals are a selling point, so it is in their interests to make them as long as possible, particularly as more and more countries have legislation that allows warranty servicing to be done by any experienced mechanic. Also, manufacturers are not interested in bikes having an inordinately long lifespan. They are only interested in their product lasting long enough for the first owner to have a trouble free experience, so they'll replace it with another onother one of the same brand.

At 75,000 my local Suzuki dealership did a compression check on my bike. They know that I change the oil and filter myself (including during the warranty period) and that I always use aftermarket filters. They found the compression to be with the specification for a new bike and they attributed it to my oil changing regime. They asked me to bring it back at 150,000 km and they'd check it again. That will be sometime next year. I use semi or full synthetic when I can find it (which is sometimes not possible in remote areas).

Changing it on the road is not a problem. Every town or remote community in Australia has at least a dirt bike and ATV dealer. I buy the oil from them, borrow a drain pan and use their oil disposal facility. Usually there is no charge other than for the oil and I often score a free cup of coffee. I carry my own spare oil filter. It takes 10 minutes max to change the oil and 20 minutes to drink the coffee; what's so hard about that? It's part of the trip and I meet some great people in the process.

When touring in the UK and Western and Eastern Europe I have found that bike shops will either let me do the job in their workshop or, more often, they have dropped what they have been doing and changed the oil on my bike immediately because of the novelty of helping an itinerrant biker.

I used to change my oil at half the recommended intervals. There was a great database in the US showing that owners who did so, using oil with standards spec'd by the manufacturer had a high correlation to longevity (mileage/km). Consumers Union used to publish the summary each year.

But then the maintainers of that database, and Consumers Union, started to recommend NOT doing so even though for some owners this would mean a quadrupling between changes. In fact, they stated doing so was needlessly wasteful and expensive.

Why ?

Lots more data (much of it from Texaco/Exxon & BMW), much better oils (additives).

Just save yourself the expense of semi-synth which has NO indication of the amount of "synth" in it but charges a hefty premium or go full synth.

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Orange, it's the new black.

I hardly dare enter a topic like this - talk about generating strong and diverse opinions - generally very few facts. But anyway here is my two pennyworth:

I work in the marine industry where our engines use 100's of gallons of oil, so guess what we don't like to do unnecessary oil changes. We actually monitor the condition of the oil (measure its viscosity, level of contaminants etc) both at a simple level directly on the ships and at a more sophisticated level sending it off to labs. And we find there is no standard change interval across the fleet - there is a range and its values are set by how the engines are used. Use the engine flat out all the time - low change interval, use it at a reasonable load - longer change interval.

As far as I see it is the same for bikes. The manufacturer gives a safe (ie slightly conservative) change level based on normal use. I use this as a guide. However if I'm riding it hard , or simply are suddenly doing lots of low gear, high load dirt road riding - I'd change it early. Conversley lots of gentle cruising I might stretch it out.

For me the bottom line is that if manufacturer recommends changes every 3500 miles I don't get worried if one of changes gets delayed to 5000 miles - the bike will not self destruct. I just don't thrash it and the oil will be fine for the extra distance.

Also irrespective of when you change it, or what type of oil you use it - just make sure you use some. I reckon more engines are wrecked by low oil level than by the more emotionally argued variables of oil type and interval. (And even then engines can be remarkably tough; I'm currently riding a KLR 650 I bought a year ago for nix since the previous owner ran it out of oil with the result the cam seized in the head and then smashed its way out of its bearings - messy! However with a secondhand cylinder head and no work to the bottom end the bike has just passed 25,000 more kilometres with no problems).

Happy debating

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Martin

finally back on the road again


http://awayonmybike.blogspot.com/