Greetings from forum newbie--and questions

[tmcafe]

Lost1, do you mean:

a) you change it first at 1000 miles? (I'm at 700, so this means I should wait until 1000 mi?)

b) 1000 after the first change (which according to some recommendations should be either after about 20 miles, or as some manuals say, around 600 miles)?

I saw you're an airline mechanic

, so you must know something about how to take care of an engine (seriously, I met an airline mechanic who was just as anal about what really mattered in motorcycles

 

[Lost1]

Quote:

---

Lost1, do you mean:

a) you change it first at 1000 miles? (I'm at 700, so this means I should wait until 1000 mi?)

b) 1000 after the first change (which according to some recommendations should be either after about 20 miles, or as some manuals say, around 600 miles)?

I saw you're an airline mechanic

, so you must know something about how to take care of an engine (seriously, I met an airline mechanic who was just as anal about what really mattered in motorcycles

---

TM,
All my numbers are odometer mileage, not mileage from one OCI to the next.
I usually do the first change at 1000 miles, sooner if the OEM calls for it. Then I do it 1500 miles later, then 2500 miles later, which yield the 2.5k & 5k intervals I mentioned in my previous post.
If you want to do the first change now, it sure wouldn't hurt anything. If the OEM says 700 miles, do it at 700 miles. Then (if it were my bike) I'd change it again at 2000, then again at 5000 odometer miles.

I would add that for my bikes, the 5k intervals are for synthetic oils. I don't use dino in air-cooled bikes, but if I did it would get changed every 2500-3000 miles.

Yes, I have been a mechanic by profession for the last 30 years on turbine-engined aircraft, as well as ground support and fleet gasoline and diesel engines.
And yes, I'm pretty anal when it comes to my engines.

 

[tmcafe]

The OEM manuals are ambiguous about the first service. All the maintenance charts list it at 1000 miles/1500 km, whereas in the text about changing the oil it's 500÷1500 km (perhaps "between"--whatever they mean by that division sign which I quoted exactly). Since the bike is a 2004 model, my gut feeling is that I better change the oil sooner rather than later.

Anyway, bottom line is that you confirm the more frequent oil changes during break-in.

Have you also done oil analyses during break-in? My Blackstone jar just came in the mail. Should I do a UOA on this first sump oil that I empty?

Cheers,
tm

 

[Lost1]

TM,
Some folks do oil analysis on all their oil changes, but I don't. I guess it's just personal preference & a way to satisfy one's own curiosity about how the break-in process is going. I'd rather wait till it has a few miles on it before testing, but that's just me.

My bike will get its first analysis at 10,000 miles, which will be in about 3500 miles. By then the (usually) elevated silicon & wear metal readings from break in should have dropped a bit, and it will be a decent baseline from which to proceed from.

 

[tmcafe]

Lost1,

I may follow the same path (wait until the bike is "broken in"). However, for now I'm very curious about the oil in the sump, which is what the bike came with. You must have read/heard about "motoman", the guy who has a website where he promotes a run-it-hard break-in style, where supposedly most of the engine break-in, or the most important part (setting the piston rings tight in the cyl bore) happens in the first 20 miles! However, an important part that wasn't done, or at least not since I got the bike, is change the oil right after that first part.

Who knows what I'll find at 700 mi...