Hard Riding - Maintenance suggestions?

[aaronjosephward]

I've been riding with a few friends lately who all have 600s and 1000s and drive what they call "slow". Of course their idea of slow is 90+mph and I have to push the bike pretty hard to keep up with.
I feel like this puts a big strain on the engine and I'm wondering if I should be changing to synthetic oil, lubing the chain more often and etc.
Any suggestions from the more experienced out there?

[DoD#i]

Sure. Find other people to ride with, or go ride by yourself. That's how you survive to become more experienced yourself.

Synthetic oil is a big waste of money on the GS, IMHO - if you have any actual reason for concern (which you may not) change plain old dinosaur oil twice as often. It's cheaper and will do more good.

If you have an o-ring chain, and you are not riding in particularly dirty areas, no reason to step up the 600 mile cleaning - the bulk of the lube is inside the o-rings, and the exterior cleaning and lubing is comparatively minor. On the other hand, if you ride in dusty/dirty areas, you want to clean the chain much more often, and the air filter as well.