how many miles
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Road Warrior
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,833
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From: Sioux Center IA
how many miles
I run Mobil synthetic 20-50 and I have a trip planned to leave July 20. I have 1200 miles on the fluids now and when I leave I will have roughly 2000 miles on. My trip to Glacier and home I am looking at 3000-3500 miles. So that puts me at a total of 5500 on the oil. Would you change it before or run it this way and change it when you get home. Thanks for your thght. I usually put 4000 to 5000 miles on around here but on a trip you run these motors hard
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From: Baton Rouge, LA
I run Mobil synthetic 20-50 and I have a trip planned to leave July 20. I have 1200 miles on the fluids now and when I leave I will have roughly 2000 miles on. My trip to Glacier and home I am looking at 3000-3500 miles. So that puts me at a total of 5500 on the oil. Would you change it before or run it this way and change it when you get home. Thanks for your thght. I usually put 4000 to 5000 miles on around here but on a trip you run these motors hard
Remember that most wear imposed on an engine is in the first few seconds of a cold start, and a difficult time for a motor oil is the running time before normal operating temperature is achieved when it is absorbing water and acid byproducts. When on tour you should be riding many more miles per cold start than you likely would be in normal operation, so my contention is that at least the additives that absorb water and acid will be tasked less. In that sense and probably others you could make a good case for extending the oil's service run moderately like you contemplate without worry.
Last edited by iclick; Jun 20, 2013 at 08:33 PM.
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From: Illinois
I put the break in 1K on a bike serviced it and took off on an Alaskan trip of 9,000 miles. Did the 10K when I got back. That is no problem for the engine at all. Two weeks of continuous 10 hour days will have cleaner oil than a year of riding a few times through the year for 5K.
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I run Mobil synthetic 20-50 and I have a trip planned to leave July 20. I have 1200 miles on the fluids now and when I leave I will have roughly 2000 miles on. My trip to Glacier and home I am looking at 3000-3500 miles. So that puts me at a total of 5500 on the oil. Would you change it before or run it this way and change it when you get home. Thanks for your thght. I usually put 4000 to 5000 miles on around here but on a trip you run these motors hard
Or, don't worry about it & change it when you get home.........<shrug>