[jmsarriat]

Good day to you all!

Just a small question,

Normally after how many kilometers do you change the oil in your bike? I have a DL650 2004 with (if i'm not wrong) ~107000 km on it. I made the last change something like 5000 km ago, last june or so. At the store they told me that i should bring the bike to service every 6000 km. However, after the winter the bike sounds different (somehow a bit hollow, when i actuate the clutch the sound becomes much better, just the engine sounds healthy) and the gearbox is not as smooth as it used to be. I checked the level and it is ok (through the window on the right), the color was blackish as far as i could see with the underground garage lighting.

So from my little experience i would say it's time for an oil change, specially from the clutch/gearbox behavior, but i appreciate any feedback from your collective knowledge.

Now that i'm on describing the problems i've also noticed a smell like burnt oil sometimes, no smoke. But i planed to solve this with a couple of hours of hard riding to clean the pipes! It worked in the two strokes, i don't see why it would not work on this one

As always i appreciate the time you took to read this and comment on the case.

Have a nice day,

Greetings from the land of cheese with holes.

 

[garandman]

I usually change at about the same interval - 5,000km / 3,000 mi, but ordinarily I change the oil at the end of the season so it is in storage with fresh oil.

Seems prudent to make a change now. What are you using for oil? I also change when the shifting gets notchy.

 

[ockerstrom]

I think the book says 6000km but I do mine every 5000km because it is easier to remember :fineprint: :green_lol:

 

[Strange Dog]

Does anyone top up the oil level between oil replacements? Does anyone pay attention to the oil level window?

 

[richw]

I guess you don't do your own oil changes.

I would have it changed and have the clutch adjusted. If it was slipping etc. Also old oil can glue the clutch plates together and the shifting becomes notchy as you never quite get the clutch dissengaged.

I who do it my self if confronted with unhappy looking goo in the crankcase will actually first change with some cheap thin dino oil as a flush then after a couple of tanks change it out with a filter to good synthetic.

 

[jmsarriat]

Thanks for the feedback. To give a bit more details i checked and the bike is running now on Midland 4T 10W40 oil. Honestly i have no clue whether that is a good or bad oil, first time in my life i hear from this brand.

I would love to do the maintenance myself but here i lack most of the tools to do it and living in the country of the regulations probably it is illegal that somebody without a title of mechanic perform this kind of operations. :thumbdown:

I guess i'll be visiting a Suzuki store in the following days. I'll try to force the use of fully synthetic oil which i heard is the best.

Have a nice evening!

 

[greywolf]

This is getting dangerously close to an oil thread. All oil discussions are to take place at http://www.stromtrooper.com/v-strom...ions-discussions/30068-big-oil-thread-56.html
Any more oil discussion here and I will close this thread.

 

[V-Tom]

If you start it and ride away without sitting there "warming up" then chainging every 6,000 km is perfectly fine, especially if you run synthetic.

If you like to sit there and have it idle for any length of time before riding or mainly do very short rides so that the bike doesn't properly warmed up then you should change it much more often.

..Tom

 

[richw]

You might try really warming her up like 10 minute ride

The put her in neutral , pull in the clutch, rev her a few times

This might loosen up the clutch plates some