i ride only on sunny days on paved roads.
i ride about an hour on leisurely country roads 3-4 times a week for about 60 miles each time.  revs kept below 7,000rpm.

what oil change interval woudl you recommend?  1,000 miles? 1,500 miles? 2,000 miles?

i'm cleaning and lubing the chain every 600 miles.

According to my manual, you should change the oil every 4,000 miles or 12 months.

Quote from: bucks1605 on June 25, 2008, 11:05:07 AM
According to my manual, you should change the oil every 4,000 miles or 12 months.

The maintenance schedule posted on the wiki says the same:
http://cgi.stanford.edu/~sanjayd/gs500/Maintenance/MaintenanceSchedule

Given your light-duty riding style, I would say the factory recommendation is adequate. Make sure you are checking the oil level frequently, and top-up if the oil is low.

thanks for the help guys ...
i bought mine used and it had fresh oil put in upon delivery ... now i know when i should look to freshen 'er up.
been checking levels (as suggested, thanks!) as seems to be a clean runnin-non-leaking engine. (so far, thankfully.)
thanks!

Quote from: 905mike on June 25, 2008, 12:57:41 PM
thanks for the help guys ...
i bought mine used and it had fresh oil put in upon delivery ... now i know when i should look to freshen 'er up.
been checking levels (as suggested, thanks!) as seems to be a clean runnin-non-leaking engine. (so far, thankfully.)
thanks!

Good stuff! One note: a low oil level is not necessarily the result of a leaky engine (well, not external leaks anyways). The engine oil in an air cooled engine is important to help regulate operating temperature. Under some circumstances, the oil tends to get burned up in this process.

The point is, you should check the oil even if you don't see any leaks! Based on your description, I know you already do this.

Please read this thread. http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=41989.0

I change my oil every 3000 miles if I do a lot of hard riding.Sooner if it starts getting dark in color.When I use my bike to commute I change the oil every 4000 miles,even if it's not getting dark in color.

What is the biggest cause of oil loss?

Presumably riding at higher speed is a factor.  How does town / city riding compare to motorway riding?

Are there any other factors that have a big impact?

I like to go every 3,000 miles.  Mainly because I notice a marked increase in shifting "notchiness" after 3k miles. 

The GS has one of the most notchy and clunky transmissions of any bike I've ridden.  It likes fresh oil.   

Higher speeds will consume more oil to a degree.  I continuously engine brake and find I use around 2 quarts between oil changes, much less if I don't engine brake.  The bike has no leaks, good rings, and no valve seal problems.

Quote from: GeeP on June 25, 2008, 08:29:20 PM
I like to go every 3,000 miles.  Mainly because I notice a marked increase in shifting "notchiness" after 3k miles. 

The GS has one of the most notchy and clunky transmissions of any bike I've ridden.  It likes fresh oil.   

Higher speeds will consume more oil to a degree.  I continuously engine brake and find I use around 2 quarts between oil changes, much less if I don't engine brake.  The bike has no leaks, good rings, and no valve seal problems.

I've noticed the same thing with my bike but I only use a quart between oil changes.My bike has less than 9000 miles on it.

I've got my bike for 12k Kms and I changed oil twice. I used 20w50 Castrol GP mineral oil until now, but my friend would give me 10w40 Motul semisynthetic . I've got a bit more than 60k km on the bike. Would this oil be good for me, or it will eat it really early?

Quote from: Occsebogyo on June 26, 2008, 07:58:12 AM
I've got my bike for 12k Kms and I changed oil twice. I used 20w50 Castrol GP mineral oil until now, but my friend would give me 10w40 Motul semisynthetic . I've got a bit more than 60k km on the bike. Would this oil be good for me, or it will eat it really early?

Look at your dipstick. It says what to use.

There are a million threads on a billion forums about what oil is 'best'. It's highly debatable, and usually is.

If you want to spend more for hi-zoot oil, help ya self. Just don't buy anything that says "friction inhibitors" or "energy conserving" on the bottle/can/pump. You have a wet clutch, that's why.

Quote from: yooblonder on June 25, 2008, 06:38:25 PM

What is the biggest cause of oil loss?

Presumably riding at higher speed is a factor.  How does town / city riding compare to motorway riding?

Are there any other factors that have a big impact?

load .....when ever i would 2 up with the wife i would use oil but just by myself neve use any

Quote from: ajaxgs on June 26, 2008, 08:45:51 AM

Quote from: yooblonder on June 25, 2008, 06:38:25 PM
What is the biggest cause of oil loss?

Presumably riding at higher speed is a factor.  How does town / city riding compare to motorway riding?

Are there any other factors that have a big impact?


load .....when ever i would 2 up with the wife i would use oil but just by myself neve use any

Thanks ajaxgs.
I've used more than 500 ml in 10 weeks doing 2,500 miles / 4,000 km but I'm never 2up (unless carrying a laptop / work stuff qualifies as 2 up ).  Seems excessive consumption to me.

aye a bit on teh high side, how hard were youriding, accelerating hard? running at high rpms?

Quote from: GeeP on June 25, 2008, 08:29:20 PM
I like to go every 3,000 miles.  Mainly because I notice a marked increase in shifting "notchiness" after 3k miles. 

The GS has one of the most notchy and clunky transmissions of any bike I've ridden.  It likes fresh oil.   

Higher speeds will consume more oil to a degree.  I continuously engine brake and find I use around 2 quarts between oil changes, much less if I don't engine brake.  The bike has no leaks, good rings, and no valve seal problems.

Are you serious ? Maybe you and I got bikes from different ends of the tolerance spectrum ? Mine shifts very smoothly, provided I actually move the shifter the full required amount

The few dirt bikes and street bikes I've ridden all had clunkier drives than our little gs. Smoothest ever ? A FJ1300R. Next up was a FZ6.

2 cents

Yeah, I probably got a late Friday afternoon transmission.  It has always been very notchy and in some cases, sticky.  I can ride it very smooooovely, but the clunkiness is just annoying.

The SV transmission feels positively refined compared to the GS transmission.  (mine, anyway)

Quote from: yamahonkawazuki on June 27, 2008, 03:12:16 AM
aye a bit on teh high side, how hard were youriding, accelerating hard? running at high rpms?

I normally potter along @ less than 6k, although I've had one or two long distance trips at higher revs (~8k).  I'm trying to calm down from hard acceleration to a more composed (but boring?) riding style!  Helps the fuel economy too. 

did an oil change on the weekend. new filter and oil cost me $25 CDN.

I have a friend who changes it with every motor change 
I mean, he never takes the oil and filter out of his old motor and put in the new motor. Never.  new motor = new oil. Fo sho.
Cool.
Buddha.

Quote from: 905mike on June 25, 2008, 10:55:02 AM
what oil change interval woudl you recommend? 

4k............or every week, thats if you have $25CDN to spare