I have seen a bunch of posts where people talk about the bike burning oil like its almost normal, like its almost supposed to happen to a point.  What im curious about is how much oil is "normal" for a bike to burn?  I just got my oil changed and after not even 500 miles it was so low that it wasnt even touching the dip stick.  Since running out of oil is one of the easiest ways to totally screw up your engine, that really concerned me because being used to a car, I usuallly dont even think about checking the oil till after at least 1000 miles from the oil change.  Is this normal or is there something wrong with my bike??  Also, I topped it off with fully synthetic 4-stroke 10W-40 Mobil1 oil but I dont think the oil change was done with synthetic, I think they (at a suzuki dealership)  just used regular 10W-40 motorcycle oil.   But at AutoZone, the only type of motorcycle oil they had was synthetic (at $7.77/quart.....owch!!).  Is there anything wrong with mixing the two or is that a bad thing??  Thanks a bunch ahead of time for any advice!!

A rough 'rule of thumb' for engines is 1 litre of oil in 800 miles - more than that is bad and needs immediate action, less than that is OK and can wait until it gets worse.

I would say your consumption is high.  There's either a leak somewhere (black puddles), it's burning it (white smoke), or you're reving it to death or spend all your time nailing it at top speed and it's all being blown out of the sump breather (invisible!).  If no puddles or smoke are evident try taking it easy and see if that makes a difference.

At least you don't have to worry about oil quality - it's spending so little time in there that cheap stuff will do fine  

The lower your engine speed the lower your oil consumption.  That is if everything else is in good order.  Since I re-jetted I'm using less oil.  I find myself running 500 rpm lower.  I'll guess that I'm using a quart in about 1,500 miles.

Well that could be it then......When I first noticed it I had been riding around with a bunch of friends for over 100 miles....and they all have 600cc bikes or higher so I have to really push my bike to keep up with them (most of them have R6's, GSX-R's, or CBR600's).  So, needless to say, I have been driving the crap out of it....also a lot of those miles were over 90MPH out in the country in the middle of nowhere and it definately came close to the redline often!!!    I definately need to calm it down a bit though because this bike has to last me till I graduate from college and can afford a new one (still 3 years to go).  Any tips on making the bike last a long time (other than not ride it like a bat out of hell)...

dont worry james..i ride with 900's etc..and constantly ride at 90 + sometimes 110mph lol just to keep up......my bikes now hit the 40,000 mile mark..so long as u top up yer oil and do maintenance as and when required it will last .they are tough solid bikes