I'm one to over maintain rather than under traditionally, but was wondering how long most of you are going between oil changes. The manual says 1100miles. At this point i'd been doing it every 500, and just did one at 1015 miles today.

Has anyone done oil analyis to check and see how the vtwin does on oil? I should have taken a sample today, I guess i'll have to at 1500.

 

I did the first one after the break in. Second one at 550 miles.

 

500 miles is a good number especially if your quad doesn't get ridden daily. I have a couple of reasons for this.
The crankcase only holds two quarts. That's not a lot of oil and with that small a volume it gets run through the system many more times than say even the Eiger who holds 2.5qts and has half the load.
Very few people ride their quads daily and most are stored in an area that is subject to large temperature swings which causes quite a bit of condensation. Even though it isn't visible this moisture is very hard on the steel internals of the engine. Daily rides will keep this and other contaminates cooked out of the oil.
I run the Mobil 1 V-twin synthetic and I still change it at least every 500 miles. If you don't ride 500 miles in 6 months then it should be changed at 6 months regardless of miles. Always ride the machine after an oil change to clean the internals and boil off what has been picked up.

 

Looks like we're all on the 500 mile plan, glad to see i'm not the only crazy one. I'm sure we're wasting our money, but I guess thats ok...lol...kaw recommends 1100, amsoil claims their synthetic will go double the manufacturers recommendation, 2200.... and I dump it at 500. I think i'm definitely going to do an oil analysis 500 miles from now and see how the wear metals and contaminants look, and how the additive package is holding up. I'm guessing we can safely go 1000, but i'd like to know for sure before I extend my interval. Oil analysis is also good because it tells you how well your airfilter is doing. The higher your Si level is, the more your filter is letting through. It's a good way to test if your aftermarket filter is in fact doing a better job, or causing more engine wear [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]