Oil Color - is it supposed to be this dark?

[ekyang]

What he ^ said
To expand any old thin dirty oil will sully your new oil. Some leave it drain overnight after a good "spirited" ride.
Leaning the bike to the right, don't drop it, will get out even more.

And to be sure I'll let it drain completely overnight after the spirited ride. Had no idea that there's about 1/2 a quart of leftover oil in there as a result of the cooler thermostats not kicking in until a preset temperature is hit. I just have to be careful when I do the oil drainage post ride to not burn myself on the hot oil.

[BoxerSteve]

I just have to be careful when I do the oil drainage post ride to not burn myself on the hot oil.

Some heavy duty rubber gloves might be handy for this task. That's what I do, when I can find the gloves before I drain the oil. But I usually don't know where they are, so I just say screw it. And get hot oil all over my hands.

[Dr. Strangelove]

your next stressor will be the crush washer.
Many reuse them. Suppose to replace w every change, but you do what you have to do.
If you don't have a torque wrench, now's the time to get one.

[ekyang]

your next stressor will be the crush washer.
Many reuse them. Suppose to replace w every change, but you do what you have to do.
If you don't have a torque wrench, now's the time to get one.

My bulk pack of oil filters and filter wrench finally came in from Beemerboneyard. Here's the current specs when doing an oil change with Bosch filters and the oil filter wrench model:
Bosch oil filter - the 2 orange things are a pair of Leight earplugs I use when riding to protect my hearing. These are in the photo to give a sense of scale.


Bosch oil filter 72161WS, F00E369832-7HH


R1150R Lisle oil filter wrench 54760:

R1150R 76mm 14 flutes oil filter wrench:

[ekyang]

Alright - since I didn't run the engine to get it hot before I drained it, instead of filling it with Mobil 1 synthetic (the expensive stuff) and having the fresh oil mix with the 1/2 qt of used oil stuck in the radiators I bought some of the "cheap" stuff Mobil super 10w40 as a test/flush oil for this first go around with the expectation that I'll just change my oil sooner for this first cycle.
Picture of fresh Mobil oil (not synthetic):

Fresh oil in a cup looks like a nice beer (not a light beer in color but definitely not a dark either-somewhere in between:


What it looks like through the sight glass on initial fill up at 8806 miles on the odo:


Now oil color at 53 miles later _ note I did have to add some extra oil since the oil view window didn't have any oil visible when I stopped:

without flash:
with flash:

[ekyang]

Oil color update 92 miles from the initial oil change:

w/o flash:

w/flash:
Definitely not as clear as the initial oil change but I am definitely seeing a darker tint after not even 100 miles of riding here in South Carolina summer.

[ekyang]

Updated oil color check at 109 miles since oil change:

[Dr. Strangelove]

riding in S Louisiana summer or winter, I'd expect a transparent dark honey color just like you're getting. Looks fine so far.

[bransan]

Hard to believe that bike has such low miles. The condition of everything looks much more worn. I don't know where Your riding, but 10-40 would be ok in winter months of new england. But most of the time You want to run 20-50, as stated in manual. I also do not recommend using synthetic oil, I use Castrol GTX 20-50. After 60k mi. I have never had the oil look dirty , but I also change it every 3k, only goes longer if I'm on a long trip.