15000 mile oil change.

[TQuentin1]

Not trying to be a wet blanket but, what you folks are saying is pure opinion and speculation with no facts to back it up.
Unless you can show me some sheets from an oil lab to substantiate your claims, I will maintain according to the factory recommendations.

Get after it. It is your bike. Treat it the way you want to.

TQ

 

[09RGlideKY]

I change my truck oil every 3000 and my Harley's every 2000 miles.I use mobile 1 in both.

 

[Jack Klarich]

I ride every day , run HD 360 and change every 2,500 miles now with no problems:s

 

[BluesFan]

As a professional oil guy, I go 5,000 with high quality syn.

Used to use Royal Purple, but my source closed. Now I run Mobil 1.

Now, as to appearance. Bwahahahahaa. Oil gets dirty, soot particles turn it dark and soot is a VERY VERY fine particle.

It's presence is normal and expected. There are additives in oil to help agglomerate them so the filter can work. But they'll always be there.

Viscosity changes are not reliable visually. Fuel dilution will thin the oil, used
up and oxidized oil will thicken.

I see almost 2,000 oil samples a year on many different types of machines. I don't pull the samples, but I handle every one of them and analyze every result from the lab.

Appearance STILL surprises me sometimes.

Rarely do I trust appearance except to sometimes specify some additional testing up front. And sometimes that is wasted effort, but timeliness matters in my business, so I'll spend that money.

 

[BUBBIE]

Any Truth to this:

I believe that oil will be at it's best (lubrication wise) after used 500 miles... Then down hill from there...

I also was told that wearing galoshes in the house caused bad eye sight..:small3d023:

Now com'on, I was told about the oil in my Older days...

Being a oil tester Above me, He'd have the answers.

Thanks
signed....BUBBIE

 

[nvsteve]

Another forum I frequent has a sticky thread for oil analysis, most by Blackstone. In nearly every case where a quality synthetic was sent in with 5000 miles Blackstone said the oil could easily go more miles.
That being said, I still change more often dpending on the type of miles I have ridden.

 

[blademan]

On all of our heavy equipment we were old school we changed oil at half what CAT called for we went so far as to change it every 6 weeks no madder how many hours on the oil.
Cat came out and went over our services and tolds us flat out we were wasting money and time changing oil and air filters way to often.
After that we went to CAT's program to the letter we saved over a million dollars on services.
Oil changes went to 500 hours double what we were doing air filter were not changed until restriction gauge said to.
Results were a lot of money and time save NO increase in engine or drive line failures.
A person has the right to do with their ride as the chose but there is nothing gained by changing oil at half what is called for if you are using good oil and filters.
I have sent samples in at 5K just to see what they would recommend, they came back with no changed needed. I do oil changes at 5k sometimes a bit early if it is going to conflict with other plans. This has served me well and with the miles I rack up no father proof is needed.

I am a Grader Operator and we service as Cat recommends, every 500 hrs. Which is the equivelant of 25,000 miles at 50MPH. So I think the Harley recommended service of 5,000 miles is plenty often. We replace equipment at 5000 hrs which equals 250,000 miles at 50MPH and in 15 years have never lost an engine.

 

[Hoople]

So I think the Harley recommended service of 5,000 miles is plenty often.

That may be true but you can not discount the Good feeling it gives you when you complete a job on your Scooter. A little like how the cage feels after you wash, wax it, and vacuum the interior. Your own Scooter vs the equipment you use at work are two different things to me.

Now if I was paying a Dealership to do my work, I probably would never change my oil because I could not afford it.

 

[Jack Klarich]

That may be true but you can not discount the Good feeling it gives you when you complete a job on your Scooter. A little like how the cage feels after you wash, wax it, and vacuum the interior. Your own Scooter vs the equipment you use at work are two different things to me.

Now if I was paying a Dealership to do my work, I probably would never change my oil because I could not afford it.

Or trust them to do the job right

 

[blademan]

That may be true but you can not discount the Good feeling it gives you when you complete a job on your Scooter. A little like how the cage feels after you wash, wax it, and vacuum the interior. Your own Scooter vs the equipment you use at work are two different things to me.

Now if I was paying a Dealership to do my work, I probably would never change my oil because I could not afford it.

Good Feeling, you got me on that one Hoople. I did not say that you shouldnt change sooner than recommended, just that it IS NOT needed. I will admit that I usually do mine sooner than recommended but do not think that it is needed. If a person goes on a 6000 mile ride it is silly to have to stop twice for service on the road. I do believe that if your living in a climate where your not riding for long periods of time then you ahould put fresh oil in before storage.