Oil Change Intervals

[Gas Man]

Ok well I have been thinking about this some. I tend to stick to MOCO specs or better. Present example.

I have just a few shy of 2k on my ultra. Just had the oil changed at 1k. Next week I leave for a 1500 mile trip. sked maintance is suppose to be at 2500** (1,500 miles after first oil change).

My normal mind tells me to just bite the bullet and change it before I leave. Screw the 500 miles of lost oil life, that its better to be safe than sorry. I changed the evo oil on my chop at 500/1000/3000 and didn't think twice. Plus the oil is an air cooled motor's life blood.

However, 1200 miles of my 1500 trip is all highway and shouldn't be that hard on the oil. Perhaps the dealer is over reacting in their maintance sked. The 1,000 mile late oil change is still only 2500 miles on the oil.

Would you change it before you left or change it when you get back?

In general how do you guys feel about the MOCO 5K oil change intervals?

[**the MOCO manual suggests 1k, 5k, and then every 5k.]

Yes I know its all opinion!

[sgtcowboyusmc]

I think changing oil under normal circumstances at 2,500 with Synthetic is overkill. I do that when it is over 100 degrees but not the rest of the year. So for me June-Aug I change it around 2,500. If I go over that by up to 500 miles I won't loose sleep. But during those months it is always 100+ degrees even if you ride at midnight and most of the days are 114-125. I think the oil will maintain it's viscosity well past that during "Normal Months". But what do I know, probably ought to wait for Blues to chime in as he really is an expert and I didn't even sleep in a Holiday Inn!

Cowboy

[Hammerhead Pat]

My manual suggests changes every 5000mi, good enough for me. I use syn 3 in the motor.

[2003FXDX]

I go 5k before changing, I don't ride real hard and run synthetic. I did the 1k service at the dealer (switched to Synthetic) then 2500 and 5000 myself. I figured the 1k, 2.5k changes removed any break in particles and at 5000 it put me on an even 5k schedule.

[Gas Man]

I'm not running synth yet. I never do like to switch, which in my mind, too early. Generally somewhere from 5k-7k is when I switch to synth.

That being said. As 2003FXDX said. I too always do my first 1k at the dealerships. Always have.

Further, as Hammer said, the MOCO manual suggests 1k, 5k, and then every 5k. Its the dealer and many other that threw in the 2.5k as added protection. I will adjust my original post to reflect as such.

That being said, I think I will forgoe the change till I get back. At that rate I'll only have 2500 on that oil and 3500 on the bike. Still a strong step in added protection from what the MOCO says.

Do you guys generally do just 5k oil changes?

[shovelmike]

I still run the old dinosaur oil in all my bikes and change them every 3,000 miles....I've never stretched it out to 5,000 on the bikes. In my opinion everything will be fine waiting till after the trip to change oil.

[Gas Man]

Thanks for the input, being new to the TC I'm just double checking things like this. Probably over thinking it as well.