Riding a 100,000 mile GS500 now.

[gsJack]

I've mentioned in several posts lately that I had about 100k on my 02 GS500 and it's now over the top.  Sorry no pics, I was going to take them but forgot all about it and when I glanced down at the odometer after yesterdays ride I had only 75 miles on it.  Old Suzi is new again!

New members often ask how long they will last so it's worth mentioning.  Good for 100k miles if you make sure you have enough oil in it after 50-60k miles or so if you want to keep pushing it as a high speed commuter or traveler after the miles add up. 

[yamahonkawazuki]

Bravo sir. job well done. I remember you talking about this back in the day a bit. whats her oil use like?

[codajastal]

[codajastal]

[Wagoneer]

Congrats! Awesome to know that if well maintained they can get past the milestone.

Also interested in oil usage. I know with mine, 35,000km on it now, that it's burning right around the max that an air-cooled engine should burn. I haven't tried any expensive or synthetic oils in it yet though.

[Janx101]

Good on you Old Chap!!! ... You'd best get a wiggle on to get the next 100k done then! ... No sense slowing up now!   

..Time for the 15w40 truck oil then Wagoneer!    

[Wagoneer]

..Time for the 15w40 truck oil then Wagoneer!    

She's definitely not at that stage yet. Heck, she doesn't even burn as much as a brand new Harley yet

If it gets more than a quart between oil changes then I'll start to get worried.

[The Buddha]

Congrads GSJack.

Wagoneer: The bikes that use oil somehow seem to use it almost from day 1. I had an 89 my first, that was un modded and was at 1 qt in about 5k with 15k on it. The thing got more and more and more ... 1 qt in 300 by the time I got 50k - that is miles. Not KM.

Cool.
Buddha.

[Wagoneer]

Yikes, hopefully mine doesn't get that bad. A qt in 300 miles?! How did it still run? lol

[The Buddha]

Yikes, hopefully mine doesn't get that bad. A qt in 300 miles?! How did it still run? lol

It ran quite fine. It took a while to warm up and worked alright when warmed up.
It never smoked a bit ... ever.
Cool.
Buddha.

[gsJack]

My oil usage never got nearly as bad as the quart in 300 Buddha reports for his first GS.  Depends a lot on speed I think after a certain amount of wear sets in.  I was using 15W-40 Rotella and changing oil at about 2k miles with filter change every other time.  Nearly as I can remember after 50k miles I was still getting 2-2.5k miles on a gallon of oil, 3 qts for change and a quart left for topping up, but by maybe 80k or so I was adding another pint to a quart between changes depending on usage of bike.

This summer I noticed when entering the parking area hot at the far drive I would come down a long line of garages in 1st and could hear the jugs rattling, engine getting well worn.  So last oil change at 99,600 miles I changed to GTX 20W-50 auto oil and mechanical noises quieted down considerably.  About 400 miles later just before odo turned over I checked oil and it was about half way down to the add mark, still way less than the 300 mile per quart Budda described for his 89.

A side note, the last 2 winters I just kept adding oil waiting for spring to change and got up close to 3k or a bit more miles and when I changed it with fresh Rotella T 15-40 in the spring it had a noticeable power increase.  Well worn and counting on extra oil seal for the rings by then.  Don't know how long it will go now without trouble but 100k from a bike in the GS price range is still a bargain I think. 

[Wagoneer]

It ran quite fine. It took a while to warm up and worked alright when warmed up.
It never smoked a bit ... ever.

Same here actually, I've never seen it smoke unless I overchoke it up to 4k on start up. My buddy has a harley with less than 10,000km on it and it smokes like a mofo whenever he gets on it and it goes through about the same amount of oil as mine with more than twice the CC's.

I wonder if GS's uses up oil by blow-by or if it magically burns off in some other means. Mechanically my bike is perfect otherwise. Still does 180 with ease, takes no time to warm up (starting to notice it taking longer now that temps have been cooling with the fall weather up here in Canada). In my mind it runs exactly like a good maintained aircooled and carb'd engine should.

GSjack and Janx, good suggestions on oil weight. Maybe I'll try out some 15w40 next spring. My local store started stocking royal purple synthetic motorcycle oil and I was going to try some of that out in the spring to see if it burns less, but I doubt it would have much effect. Probably just burning my money faster.

[Janx101]

..  ... just went on an oil 'rant' ... i'll leave it out of here and post it somewhere else ummm .. "the wonders of Valvoline!" .. its been over a week without an oil argument!! 

dont want to trash Sir GSJack's acheivment thread!! 

[Badot]

So with the 'solution' to these engines aging being thicker oil, any thoughts on how thick can you go before it starts causing other problems?

[Big Rich]

Congrats Jack. That is a testament to the benefits of proper care / maintenance. And an iron butt.

[BockinBboy]

Congrats Jack. That is a testament to the benefits of proper care / maintenance. And an iron butt.

+ 1 

Exactly my thoughts!

- Bboy

[The Buddha]

So with the 'solution' to these engines aging being thicker oil, any thoughts on how thick can you go before it starts causing other problems?

I ran straight 60 viscosity as a experiment a couple of cycles. It made no difference. I was worried it may hurt it and went back to 20/50.
BTW I never ran that 10/40 in mine, I got it with just about 10k and it had 20/50 in it, I didn't care, just ran that.

Cool.
Buddha.

[Thomps991]

..  ... just went on an oil 'rant' ... i'll leave it out of here and post it somewhere else ummm .. "the wonders of Valvoline!" .. its been over a week without an oil argument!! 

dont want to trash Sir GSJack's acheivment thread!! 

You already did...

[The Buddha]

..  ... just went on an oil 'rant' ... i'll leave it out of here and post it somewhere else ummm .. "the wonders of Valvoline!" .. its been over a week without an oil argument!! 

dont want to trash Sir GSJack's acheivment thread!! 

You already did...

Ouch ...
Cool.
Buddha.

[ohgood]

with stock gearing, assuming a fairly high (entire bikes life so far) average speed of 60ish mph, that's about:


100,000-ish miles
x 5,000-ish rpm's per mile
-----------
500,000,000 revolutions for that engine.

that's five hundred -million- revolutions.




average distance traveled per trip (another guesstimate):
50 miles = 2,000 presses of the starter button, bare minimum


average time the starter ran (guesstimate):
2,000 presses @ 1/2 second each = 1,000 seconds of starter engagement, or about 16 MINUTES of the starter running


other things to ponder...
amount of oil circulated by the oil pump ?
number of back fires ?
farts embedded in the seat ?
boogers flung at stop signs ?
total wheel weights used ?
amount of air sucked, smooshed, banged, and pushed ?


way to go sir, that's a hell of a milestone (for the bike) we know you have more.