BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

Two question about oil in our bikes:

1. I am about 2000 miles from my next scheduled oil change, but well over one year. The old rubric says to change the oil in gasoline combustion engines after XXXX miles or once per year. Does that still apply to the synthectic oils? I do live in a climate where the humidity is high and rain is..... well it is the rain forest. I am riding less miles per year than I did in San Diego county CA. What's the concensus?

2. A long time friend and long time Beemer rider said he used high quality Dino oil in his '03 R1150RT for the first 12000 miles and then switched to synthetic and had virtually no oil consumption between changes. I have heard that synthetics prevent the rings from wearing in as well as they could be and thus the oil consumption. Although I had a 2000 Mercedes C230 Sport that lived its life on synthetic and never used oil between the 10,000 mile change interval. My sister is still driving Sadie with over 200,000 miles and the same experience. So maybe the theory is flawed. So I am thinking that I may change oil using a good Dino oil and after a few thousand miles and a couple of changes switch back to synthetic to see if it lessens the oil consumption. Again, what is the concensus?

We use real oil in all 4 of our R bikes. Been using Valvoline motorcycle oil 20-50 and also Rotella T4 15-40. We sort of switched to the higher 20-50 because of the hot weather we ran in last summer, not sure if it was necessary but the manual say's the 20-50 should be used over 95, I think it was. Utah was over a 100.

I use a Valvoline 20-50 full synthetic but only because that's what the previous owner used and gifted me a coupe of quarts....so just for consistency and not to have to worry about mixing different brands/types, and it's one less thing for me to think about. Haven't noticed any unusual consumption and when I do my annual change the oil looks abut as clean as when it went in. I don't ride as much as I'd like though, maybe 3-5K/year and the bike is put up for long periods in the winter. I could probably skip changing it but always have in the back of my mind the notion that there are acids in the used oil best not left sitting. Not sure that changing it in my case has any real world effects but the oil is cheap enough and my local garage takes the used oil to heat in the winter, so it's win-win.

I put on about the same amount of miles as the original poster, 4-5,000 miles a year .
I too wondered if changing the oil every year was necessary or not .
I'm using Mobil 1 motorcycle oil 20-50 wt, summer temps here in Phoenix average 105 F, then sometimes it even gets hot here !!
I'd kick my self if I ruined an engine because I was going the cheap route .
So I continue on replacing it every year .
Motorcycle and auto maintenance due next week, I'm on vacation and the furnaces of hell have finally receded for another 6 months .

Hello Riverside
How many miles are on the bike and what is your oil consumption
Thanks

My 'o4 has 102,000 and has virtually no oil consumption between changes. I bought the bike in '07 with 17K and don't remember what may have been used previously, but since then have only used Castrol (dino) 20/50 summer and 10/40 winter(as per manual). I had an '03(bought new) previously and totaled it after near 4 yrs with 44K with the same story on oil. Probably used a bit for the first 10K or so. Don't really remember. I change at or around 4K.

Hi Mrclubike, Maxine has 28,000 miles now. I seem to be using about 2 1/2 quarts every 6000, maybe more. Seems high to me. It has been that way since purchasing the bike about 7 years ago with only 5400 miles. The bike came to me using only synthetic. I did the first 6000 mile service at my local dealer and replaced all fluids at that time as a precaution. The dealer put in a 10-40 synthetic.... used that everysince.
It's not the price of the oil, although here in Costa Rica synthetic oil is around $16 US per quart. The consumption puzzles me.

Try using regular oil. Two dealers told us not to use synthetic in the older oil heads. I know a lot of guys do however.

Riverside said, "

Maxine has 28,000 miles now. I seem to be using about 2 1/2 quarts every 6000, maybe more.

That is high, Riverside. Most likely the rings didn't wear into the cylinders because of synthetic oil use early on, and it might have been ridden too tenderly as well... You could start using regular dino oil and do some hard accelerations & decelerations to try to set those rings.

I tried using a synthetic-blend (Castrol Syntech 20W-50) in my 2002 RR and it started leaking, especially around the camshaft end-covers on the back of the cylinder heads, and from the rear main. I changed it back to regular Castrol 20W-50 and it hasn't leaked since.
I will never put any synthetic lubricants in this bike again.

Thanks all for the input and relating your experiences.... I think the change coming up after a short trip next week will be using dino oil and monitor the consumption. The rainy season here is now over and Maxine will see more activity on recently repaved roads. No potholes to dodge.