While I'm eagerly anticipating Kerry and I tearing into my bike tonight (I hope) and fixing it (I hope), I realized I'm not sure the source of another problem.
When I checked my oil as part of my ill-fated saturday service that left my bike unstartable, it wasn't even touching the stick. I ended up putting almost 2 quarts of oil in it.
I'd only gone *maybe* 1500 miles since it was last known to be full. I don't think even that far. I know I should have checked more frequently, but I didn't realize it would go down that fast!
What causes that? I know some bikes burn oil faster than others.
could it be related to some of the other probs I've been having with my bike? (stalling on the freeway when it still has gas, high idle after it warms up, poor gas mileage, etc)
Looks like you're not getting many replies; but ~2 quarts low is very, very low (the bike only takes ~3 quarts). That could easily affect shifting ease.
Regarding stalling on the freeway, I don't know why low oil would cause that (unless it caused a siezure). However, I did have a somewhat similar experience: I had a stuck float needle, and overflowed the carburetors (and made a lake of gasoline in the garage). I didn't notice, but this also dumped several cups of gasoline into the crankcase. One symptom this produced, was that the bike would start, but as it warmed-up, it would stumble. I could keep it running by blipping the throttle, but eventually it would kill. Draining the oil/gas from the crankcase, flushing, and refilling with new oil fixed my problem... but I think the bike may be burning oil faster now.
...so yes, I think a lubrication problem can be accompanied by stumbling and engine stalls once the engine warms-up. But I don't understand why. I would have thought that the engine would run until it siezed-up.
...and yes, running low on oil could probably cause an increase in future oil consumption.
Hmmm. Maybe it's time to try a less-synthetic (and cheaper!) oil...?
See the current thread Interesting oil fact? (http://www.gstwins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=68282)
I've seen reliable GS500's use one quart in 500 miles if ridden mostly highway/high rpm. So it doesn't surprise me.
Try a synthetic. All you have to lose is about $25 in oil