All this adding oil bothers me.......

[A Non eMouse]

I found a new way to leak some oil today.

Check the oil level and forget to screw the dipstick back in.

Leaked all over my engine, peg, exhaust, shoe, pant, wheel.

[pbureau69]

heheh.. I have done better, checked oil... forgot to put dipstick back in.. (dont ask I dont know) rode out... got on highway and 1 qtr of oil all over side of bike, legs, boots, and rear tire.

fun !

oh yeah the dipstick was patiently waiting on my toolbox.

[pandy]

I've let the oil get so low it doesn't measure on the dipstick.  Good thing the Baby G is so forgiving of the dipstick known as pandy. 

[yamahonkawazuki]

i use the 10-40 "budget oil" while i evaluate my engine. then i might use teh castrol gtx. but car oil all the way. coems from teh same dinosaur 

[pbureau69]

Knock on wood.... but I've had my bike for over a decade and while checking the oil every other ride, I've never noticed it ever being lower than the last check.

and we all hope that the first measure of oil was when it shown oil at the full mark on the dip stick

[Teek]

I was using Valvoline 10/40 in my own baby G and it was needing to be topped off a bit every other fill up or 3. I only run about 150 miles on the trip before hitting the gas station, that's 2-3 rides each "tank". That's to offset the potential for petcock or crap pocket problems, it's a CAli tank, it also makes me check my tires more often, plus we don't risk running on reserve way up in the mountains.

When running the Valvoline, it burned some oil very consistently. After a new filter and a swap to synthetic (Motul, with no EC additives!) there is negligible loss. In fact I was a little ticked because my hubby did the oil changes on both our bikes at the same time, and he overfilled mine a bit and thus made it hard to find neutral (then he denied he did so and said I was making it up that overfilling can cause this effect on the GS). I can tell the oil is finally down a bit by the fact that neutral is now cake to get. Plus I looked.

I'm curious why the synthetic would last longer under the same riding conditions? 

[pbureau69]

conventional oil breaksdown faster tha syntec oil does, all I can think of.

[commuterdude]

I added about 1/5th a quart today after riding 700 miles....including 8 miles with the dipstick just setting in the hole .    Oh well, I guess I am not Mr. BikeTech.

[GeeP]

I added about 1/5th a quart today after riding 700 miles....including 8 miles with the dipstick just setting in the hole .    Oh well, I guess I am not Mr. BikeTech.

Welcome to the club!  I did it a thousand miles from home one day.   I checked the oil at a gas stop, wasn't thinking and forgot to screw it back in.  About 10 miles down the road I got to wondering my my right foot kept slipping off the peg.   

Half a quart later and I was back on the road.   

[pherthyl]

Mine is pretty inconsistent.   600km trip to the interior, and it had gone from full to close to the bottom mark.  Then 600km back, riding at at least 20km/h faster and the level didn't budge at all.   And this is a beat up '89 with some certifiable abuse in its past.  Whatever, ride it till it breaks and get another one!

[DoD#i]

Mine is pretty inconsistent.   600km trip to the interior, and it had gone from full to close to the bottom mark.  Then 600km back, riding at at least 20km/h faster and the level didn't budge at all.   And this is a beat up '89 with some certifiable abuse in its past.  Whatever, ride it till it breaks and get another one!

If you were puttering (lots of short trips, and/or bike sitting for long time) before the first trip, there might be a simple explanation - condensate (water collecting in the oil, from the air). Finally take a long trip, get everything hot enough for long enough to boil it out, level drops. Add oil, come back, no more water to boil off, level stays put. Especially since you seem to be coastal (damp air).