oil question

Complete newbie question but how often should I be checking the oil? And do I need to buy any specific type of oil for a sportsbike?

Thanks and i know this probably seems a silly thing to ask but i would appreciate a bit of advice.

Depends on the age and type of engine. Newer high performance engines (like an R1) will want a fully synthetic oil, and I don’t check oil that often. I know my engine doesn’t leak or burn oil, I just check it every other week when I’m cleaning it - and just do the oil change when it’s due. It’ll say in the manual when oil changes are needed etc.

What bike is it you have?

Edit: I suppose I could’ve looked at your display pic :stuck_out_tongue: I have a ZX6r which I use full synthetic oil in, but on a 600 you can probably get away with semi synthetic if you wanted to. Make sure you only ever use 4 stroke motorcycle oil though, don’t ever put in car engine oil :slight_smile:

Thanks for the heads up matey. Now just got to sort my squeeky front brake!

yeah, when first get a bike check oil regular and you will work out if your bike burns oil (which it should not too much) and you learn etc and obviously if it dont check it kess.

with squeaky brakes could be just dust/crap on the discs, try some brake cleaner first, if not that then get pads out and a bit of copper grease on back.

It only takes a minute to check your oil. I always do a full POWDER (petrol, oil, water, drivetrain, electrics, rubber) check every time I go out for a decent run. It doesn’t take much time and may get you out of trouble one day.

When checking the oil, make sure you follow the instructions from the maintance book. If you have dry sump bike, it will look like you don’t have any oil unless you check it properly (in my case, when the engine is propperly warm, let idle for 2 minutes, then rest for 2 minutes).

As for which oil, always top up with the oil that’s in it, so when you have the bike serviced, ask which oil they use, and buy a top-up bottle of the same.