Beemer and Harley, contrast

[dwayne]

For those that report low oil consumption, let me ask a question: When you shut your bike down after riding, say over night; do you leave your bike on the side stand or center stand? Just wondering if leaving it on the side stand is allowing too much oil to find its way where it shouldn't really be, and getting burned.

[MattPie]

For those that report low oil consumption, let me ask a question: When you shut your bike down after riding, say over night; do you leave your bike on the side stand or center stand? Just wondering if leaving it on the side stand is allowing too much oil to find its way where it shouldn't really be, and getting burned.

I put my bike on the center stand just about every time I leave it. If I'm just running into a store for 10 minutes or something, I might use the side-stand, but rarely anything longer.

My bike as 8600mi on it. I just put about 8oz of oil in last night, after roughly 1000mi. Most of my riding is done on back roads at low speeds, but with lots of throttle changes and whatnot. It too do the lazy oil check, just glance at the window when its cold or hot, and as long as its around the center, I just go with it. Some day, the engineer in me is going to get out and I'll sit with the bike (and a beer) and record the oil level starting from hot to cold, just to see what the difference is.

[cworley5150]

For those that report low oil consumption, let me ask a question: When you shut your bike down after riding, say over night; do you leave your bike on the side stand or center stand? Just wondering if leaving it on the side stand is allowing too much oil to find its way where it shouldn't really be, and getting burned.

I think you may e on to something here. I usually use the sidestand. Occassionally will put it up on the center stand when parking it in the garage and doing maintenance. For the next oil change interval I'm going to use the center stand as much as I can and see if oil usage slows down any.

[Arjen]

Dwayne's question for those that report low oil consumption and a remark from qfman in another post...

Issues: Will burn oil down to bottom of sight glass within 500km but then burns no more. Motor runs very lean and will occasionally stall if throttle blipped.

...made me think of another question for those that report high oil consumption:
To which level in the sight glass do you add oil?

When I'm at the half-way dot in the sight glass it burns very little oil, but when the bike's been to the dealer for maintenance they always fill the engine with fresh oil to the top of the sight glass. The oil burns down to the halfway dot in only just 400/500km and then kinda stops.

Looks like overfill. And sometimes the oil level is at the bottom of the glass when I check it cold... and it was at the dot when I checked it ten minutes after the ride (I do all my checking on the centerstand on a level surface).

Made me think: suppose someone always checks the oil level when the engine is cold and fills it to the top of the sight glass... Couldn't that just be a huge overfill? In that case I would expect high oil consumption.

Just a thought.

[cworley5150]

Dwayne's question for those that report low oil consumption and a remark from qfman in another post...

Issues: Will burn oil down to bottom of sight glass within 500km but then burns no more. Motor runs very lean and will occasionally stall if throttle blipped.

...made me think of another question for those that report high oil consumption:
To which level in the sight glass do you add oil?

When I'm at the half-way dot in the sight glass it burns very little oil, but when the bike's been to the dealer for maintenance they always fill the engine with fresh oil to the top of the sight glass. The oil burns down to the halfway dot in only just 400/500km and then kinda stops.

Looks like overfill. And sometimes the oil level is at the bottom of the glass when I check it cold... and it was at the dot when I checked it ten minutes after the ride (I do all my checking on the centerstand on a level surface).

Made me think: suppose someone always checks the oil level when the engine is cold and fills it to the top of the sight glass... Couldn't that just be a huge overfill? In that case I would expect high oil consumption.

Just a thought.

I have no doubt that what you are thinking is happening in some cases of extreme oil consumption. I always check my oil when hot, on center stand and try to keep it about in the middle of the sight glass. Sometimes I'll let it run a little lower, but as long as i see some oil in the glass when it is on the center stand I am happy.

Doesn't the manual say to check it hot and on the center stand?

[Tripton]

I ususually use the side stand, except for long storage, and my bike burns very little oil.

I will admit that this vast inconsistency with the bikes is a little odd.