oil? what kind?

[soon2briding]

im going to do my oil change and change my fork seal.. but what kind of oil do i need for my oil change and what do ask for when i go to the local shop? do i just ask for 97 gs500 fork seal? or is there something else i need? and also what kind of fork oil should i get? :dunno: oh yea.. is there a motorcycle specific oil or can i just get anything? and what about the oil filter? can i buy all this stuff at walmart? or do i have to go to local shop to get it?

[scratch]

There's alot of suggestions on this board, your best bet would be to do a search on 'oil'. You'll get a lot of information.

Fork oil you'll have to get at the m/c shop. 10w or 15w. Personally, I use Bel Ray fork oil in the 10w, but I'm 130# so I don't need a heavy oil and I do alot of commuting; and I kinda like a soft ride now.

[Kerry]

See the Oil Filter message thread for various brands and part numbers.

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As for oil:

* Keeping the oil level up is more important than the "dino juice vs synthetic" debate.
* Using something close to 10w40 is more important than using a motorcycle-specific oil.
* Changing the oil & filter every 3 to 4 thousand miles is more important than, say, what octane of fuel you put in the tank.
* Sometimes a low price is the most important aspect of all.  (If this is a consideration for you, see the current message threads

Free oil maybe not for the bike because its synth
and
More free oil after rebate.)[/list:u]-------------------------------------------------------------

You can order fork seals either from your local dealer or from an online source like BikeBandit or Ron Ayers.

[novon]

I used Castrol GTX 10W-40 (non energy conserving)

[b1k3r 3li+3]

i use silkolene semi synthetic, 20w50 for the summers here in texas. during the coolers months i'll go back to 10w40.  Silkoline semi sythetic is nice, cause you get the best of both worlds, just enuff additives and friction modifiers in the oil.

[soon2briding]

how many quarts do i need for my engine?... and how many quarts for my forks?

[Kerry]

For the engine: 3 quarts

For the forks: Less than 1 quart

[richard]

just a note on the fork oil, I really like the 15w that I have in mine.  get "fork oil" from a motorcycle shop.  we had to look a bit to find 15w.

[destroyer]

I run castrol 10w40 in mine w/ no problems.  Also, you can get the oil filters at AutoZone.

[Mike Harman]

What about Suzuki oil??? Does anybody use it?

The local dealer sells it for $2.50/qt. I bought the bike from 2 Jacks in Wilkes-Barre PA, a 2001 with 4k miles. I plan to change oil every 2K miles also when I stop riding about mid-November.