change once a year regimen

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Most motorcycle maintenance plans and most motorcycle riders change their oil once a year - if the mileage is not reached.

If I say ride a 1000 miles and then park it for winter - I would basically throw out good serviceable oil.

My thinking is - most of the oil apart from leftover that doesn't run down in the pan - the oil just sits in the pan - so saying the oil is harming the engine isn't really right in my opinion.

Combining with somwhere on here there's an UOA from a car sitting for several years where the conclusion was: oil is fine and serviceable.


What's your take on that? Always store with fresh oil - or leave it in when it's theoretically still serviceable?


Alex
 
Depends on how the bike is ridden.

1000 miles in 2 trips, the oil is fine till you reach your mileage.

1000 miles in 100 trips, the oil may be fuel diluted and probably needs to be changed before storage.
pH may be off and sitting in the crank for 6 months could cause some problems after a few years of doing this.
Will it, probably not, but depending on the bike and metals (especially the gears) it could.

IMO, a part of it may just be the simplicity of it.
If I know I do an oil change before storage every year, I don't have to worry about mileage during the next season, and can just start it and ride.
Or say one year you ride a lot more (or a lot less) that before, having "new" oil in it every year is just easier.

Or just live somewhere that you can ride year-round and not worry about it.
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I'd say the only real way to know if 1000 mile oil will harm your engine would be to have it tested. If the numbers are out of whack, change it before storage, if not, leave it be.
 
@bicopher:

As long as the TBN and TAN don't crossover, shouldn't there be enough TBN acid neutralizers be present to prevent exactly that?

@A_Spruce: Yes indeed, that's the easiest thing to do - but for the same money I can simply change the oil and not worry about it
 
Read an article from popular mechanics where they had an old lawn mower that had been used for ten years without an oil change. They sent a sample to be tested and guess what? The oil was still in spec and still serviceable.
Now I would not go that far, but it did relieve any fears I had about missing a scheduled oil change.
 
Originally Posted by alex_at
@bicopher:

As long as the TBN and TAN don't crossover, shouldn't there be enough TBN acid neutralizers be present to prevent exactly that?

@A_Spruce: Yes indeed, that's the easiest thing to do - but for the same money I can simply change the oil and not worry about it

You kind of answered your own question.

If TBN and TAN are fine, then yes, it should be good to keep, but you don't know those numbers unless you do a UOA.
A nice little catch 22.

Now sure, you can do a sample one year and it be good, and you keep following the same regemine with same oil and similar riding and should be fine, but you don't know 100% unless you sample it.

Again, I think it goes back to simplicity and peace of mind.
 
My bike sees use which is similar to your 1000 mile per year example, with most rides an hour or so, and I change the oil in my bike every 2 years. The other option would be to use a cheaper oil rather than the M1 4t 10w40 I use, and change every year instead. But from the posts I've seen on BITOG, the OCI I'm using won't cause any harm.
 
So I think I'll continue on what I've been doing since I buoght my bike back in 2016, I kept the oil over the winter - and then changed it the next season (which is still very early regarding to the mileage) . Right know I have about 3000 miles on the engine and the oil fills have been (1.factory fill, 2. first service castrol mineral, 3. Petro Canada 15W40 HDEO, 4. Motul 300V which is in the engine atm.)

Before I park it for winter I bring it to my garage which is a 50 mile highway run - I guess that boils off most of the fuel and moisture in the oil.
 
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Fuel and battery were my winter worries. With a lithium battery and E0 in the tank, not anymore. I just park the bike and hop on whenever I please. If it sits a long time, I do rotate the front tire once a month or so (rear is up on a stand). My recently posted UOA showed a 5.3 TBN after roughly 3 years, with a few hundred mL of even older oil (didn't change the filter). Mostly short trips, and everything looked about normal other than copper.
 
My bike needs an oil change at 7,500km, or one year, that used to be about what I rode in a year, sometime a lot more (commuting), and sometimes less, not often I put that much in these days, about 4 or 5 thousand now. I ride all year, just had a nice ride today, mid winter, temps around 14C, but under 10C when I set out. Still tend to do a winter maintenance thing, but prefer to push the kms to recommended.
 
I usually ride in a season (April thru October) between 3,000 to 6,000 miles the last 11 years. That's daily riding to that one vacation ride. I faithfully change my engine oil & filter no longer than 5,000 miles as recommended by the manufacture (Harley-Davidson). 2018 when I returned home mid August from a 4,500 mile two week ride I changed oil & filter. I didn't quite have 1,800 miles on that oil when I put the bike up for the winter late October early November. But in early April 2019 I changed out that oil & filter to start the new season fresh!

If I only rode 1,000 miles a season I'd leave that oil & filter in the engine until the following year. Then change it out for fresh. Not saying anything is wrong with that year old 1,000 mile oil, but to each is own. Cheap insurance and only a $50 piece of mind cost. By the way I run Spectro Golden 20W-50 Semi-Synthetic in my water cooled 2016 FLHTK Ultra Limited. Did the same with my 08 FLHR Road King I owned for 10 years and 56,000 miles before I sold it.
 
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I inherited a Mahindra tractor from my folks.... It is a 2008 model and the oil was never changed, but it only had 150hrs on the clock. It was run about 15 hours a year. When I drained the oil (11 years later), it actually looked really, really good. I didn't test it, but it was dark golden colored and flowed smooth and looked good out of the drain hole.

If I changed the oil on a bike in the early spring and rode the bike about 1,000 miles over 6-7 months.... I would not dump and change it at Thanksgiving, especially if I was using HDEO. I would just run the oil for a second year.
 
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Reading this thread got me to thinking about the oil in the motor of my 2009 H-D FLHT. A quick record check showed I change for storage in November 2017. Change consisted of a mix of Mystik J8 15w-50 and M1 15w-50, along with a HiFlo filter. Current mileage on the oil is about 3200 miles. I don't take short hops on this bike, but I'll change things out come storage time this year. Thanks for the reminder
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Quit annual changes after joining BITOG and watching several UOA results.
Did my own UOAs with 24+ months intervals and came back superb.I am not talking about 1000 miles but normal distance OCIs (6.000kms on motorcycle , 13.000km on car).Came to the conclusion that time does not matter if the vehicle is used properly (gentle driving while it warms up,a good long ride once in a while if it is short tripped etc).
 
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