oil type /level

[heathy]

Why would you want to check it cold and having sat overnight, when the handbook tells you to:

1. Get the bike up to a good running (operating) temperature

2. Stand bike on centre stand or hold upright

3. Leave for five minutes (dull if it's not on its centre stand, I grant you).

4. Check oil level

5. Top up, if necessary.

....................because its a faff and i can't be ars-d ! who wants to carry oil everywhere they go and be checking it when they stop... only to find youve been warming the engine up with too little oil.....classic bike buffs excepted. Sounds like a design fault to me. At least they have it right with tyre pressures - MEASURE WHEN COLD!

 

[AndyW]

Why would you want to check it cold and having sat overnight, when the handbook tells you to:

1. Get the bike up to a good running (operating) temperature

2. Stand bike on centre stand or hold upright

3. Leave for five minutes (dull if it's not on its centre stand, I grant you).

4. Check oil level

5. Top up, if necessary.

They even, in mine at least, helpfully suggest doing it a fuel stop. I guess that is just in case the owner cannot imagine what BuMW mean.

I can't see anywhere in the same Rider's Manual where BuMW have an alternative section for, "I want to do it cold" or "I want to do it when I get up" or "I can't be arsed to do that" Or, "I keep forgetting to do it. What should I do?".

Try remembering.

If you think you can remember to do it when the bike is cold (and the reading may well be wrong, so making it a pointless exercise) I am sure you can remember to do it when it's at operating temperature.

Not least it will save endless threads about, "Mine has no oil showing; mine has a 5/8, or maybe it's a half, I can't tell and I'm in my dressing gown; I stand mine overnight on the side stand, does that matter?"

....scuse me for asking!

Given that oil expands when hot i would have thought that if you tip up, park it on the centre stand and leave it over night, the worst your going to get is an artificailly low level. So if it's still on the sight glass (bottom lower limit and top upper limit) you should be alright.

...........so this am 5/8ths of the sight glass filled, return from ride and check in usual (prescribed) manor 3/4s filled.

Sounds like a design fault to me. At least they have it right with tyre pressures - MEASURE WHEN COLD!

Better still why don't they give hot and cold levels?

 

[Tartan Terror]

If this is one of those thread about oil/type/consumption again I'll eat my..................oh it is!

Castrol 20/50 from new and nothing else on all my GS's.

 

[trebor]

To my untrained eye I've yet to see a significant difference between the oil level 5 minutes after putting it on the centre stand, on a level surface, after a thoroughly good ride out and the oil level after leaving the bike, untouched, overnight.

Bob

 

[Wapping]

....................because its a faff and i can't be ars-d ! who wants to carry oil everywhere they go and be checking it when they stop... only to find youve been warming the engine up with too little oil.....classic bike buffs excepted. Sounds like a design fault to me.

Why becuase it's not a faff (nor a design fault) at all. Indeed it can be done from nice and warm quite simply with just a slight variation on the "I'll do it when I set off, when it's cold" regime. Nor does it require you carry any more oil in a container than you normally might*.

Start with a properly filled bike.

Ride it. Go out for the day or whatever it is you do. Few people spend days away on their bikes everytime they go out, so you will probably find yourself back at home in the evening of the same day.

Shove the bike on its center stand. Take off gloves, helmet, jacket, unlock front door, kick the dog, kiss the wife, put the kettle on and do whatever it is you do for five minutes each time you come home. Taking off your gloves, helmet and jacket will probably use up one minute on their own.

Five minutes or so after arrival, wander back to the nicely warm bike, ticking away as it cools.

Check the oil. If it needs any, fill it, from the same container you would use in the morning when the bike is cold. You will now know that the next time you use your bike, whether it's in the sleepy eyed morning, at fatboy lunchtime or in the moon lit night, it's oil is just right. No need to carry any extra oil and the depth has been checked, just as regularly (as some seem to be hung up over the word 'regularly') as it would have been had it been checked in the morning from cold.The only difference? You are now doing it in the exact manner BuMW go to a lot of trouble to explain - in very simple language - in the Owner's manual.

Easy really.


*Who does, in reality, carry oil around - unless they are going on some extended tour - irespective of whether they check their oil hot or cold?

 

[luckylucian]

I think the short version - "RTFM" would have considerably shortened this thread.

 

[Wapping]

I think the short version - "RTFM" would have considerably shortened this thread.

...ah...very true.....but that would be so much less fun than ignoring TFM and then moaning that BuMW did not know what they were doing selling an ill designed motorcycle, which did not pander to people who could not be faffed or forgot to check their oil unless the sun was just creeping over the eastern horizon and all was calm, cold and still.....

 

[Brian ROSEN]

The precise sequence by Wapping

That is very good - I can understand that; I can get out my slide rule (if any of you know what that is) and add/subratct as necessary because I haven't got a dog and I will have to visit my neighbours and their dog will be barking furiously because I have just driven past - on second thoughts they may not be too impressed by the process -could you re-write it in French please & send me a certified copy to show them? ( If you could add a Royal crest it would help.)

 

[Wapping]

That is very good - I can understand that; I can get out my slide rule (if any of you know what that is) and add/subratct as necessary because I haven't got a dog and I will have to visit my neighbours and their dog will be barking furiously because I have just driven past - on second thoughts they may not be too impressed by the process -could you re-write it in French please & send me a certified copy to show them? ( If you could add a Royal crest it would help.)

Pas de problem.

In the French version, you kick the wife and kiss the dog.... I will feature it in a small addenda to TFM.


.....You can though miss out the bit about putting the kettle on. It's a pointless activity as French tea is an insult to our great empire and it's finest single product (ignoring SA diamonds and gold, Australian and NZ wool and lamb, Malayan rubber, Canadian.....um....um.....ah, timber.....) simply pull a cork, instead.


I have a slide rule and log ( and anti-log) tables..... I'm well set up when the French (who seem to own all our power stations and the water) turn the electricity off....

 

[Brian ROSEN]

Have we done now?

good, perhaps we can terminate this thread! ......"French tea is an insult to our great empire...." Yes, you are quite right - so if anybody is coming this way and/or likely to break down in the vicinity make sure you are carrying a box of least 160 teabags, preferably Twinings Everyday - but anything 'normal will be gratefully accepted.'

 

[Wapping]

good, perhaps we can terminate this thread! ......"French tea is an insult to our great empire...." Yes, you are quite right - so if anybody is coming this way and/or likely to break down in the vicinity make sure you are carrying a box of least 160 teabags, preferably Twinings Everyday - but anything 'normal will be gratefully accepted.'

Amen to that.

PM me your address and I'll send you a box.

Richard

 

[Sgt Bilco]

good, perhaps we can terminate this thread! ......"French tea is an insult to our great empire...." Yes, you are quite right - so if anybody is coming this way and/or likely to break down in the vicinity make sure you are carrying a box of least 160 teabags, preferably Twinings Everyday - but anything 'normal will be gratefully accepted.'

Brian

Twinings everyday is OK but the "Rossi" of tea has to be Barry`s Irish Tea which is sublime. I`ll get you a box next time in Ireland

Perhaps we should have a "favourite tea" thread which has to be interesting than an oil thread.

 

[Steptoe]

As an aside we have a lot of vehicles at work that require hot oil checks, however we all know where the oil level should be when the engines cold. Saves making costly mistakes after a service.

So do you top up with cold oil or hot oil ? How do you measure the amount your topping up with.

This should be a new thread .

 

[st247]

So do you top up with cold oil or hot oil ? How do you measure the amount your topping up with.

This should be a new thread .

Hmmm, not really sure what your asking, (nothing unusual there), but anyway here goes-

When said engine is cold the oil level should be about the very bottom of the dipstick, once up to temp it'll be in the safe range, or close enough. For the gearbox you'd need to overfill by about three inches on the dipstick so that the oil level is at the second '0' of the engraved 'check at 800 rpm at 185f'

Top up with hot, or cold oil, given the amounts in use it won't matter, Measure it? thats why they have dipsticks.


Do you know what it is yet?

I'll give you a clue, it's not a bike.

 

[Steptoe]

Top up with hot, or cold oil, given the amounts in use it won't matter, .

So the amount is so small it doesn't matter ? then does it really need topping up ? I'm talking about GS's here, not other vehicles. ( carry on, and we'll get to where i'm leading to )

 

[John Armstrong]

So the amount is so small it doesn't matter ? then does it really need topping up ? I'm talking about GS's here, not other vehicles. ( carry on, and we'll get to where i'm leading to )

Not talking about where someone keeps on filling a GS / RT etc till it overflows out of the filler cap are we

IIRC Wiliams had a 1200RT that had twice the "normal" oil quantity in it.

 

[st247]

So the amount is so small it doesn't matter ? then does it really need topping up ? I'm talking about GS's here, not other vehicles. ( carry on, and we'll get to where i'm leading to )

The amount may be small as a percentage of the capacity but it does still need topping up for other reasons (i might even expain why if you ask nicely)

I'm not talking about GS's, but lets cut the chase and just get to where your going