What youre doing is smart. And at 600 miles per...even regular oil would work fine.

 

The only real reason I went to synthetic oil was because everything I read says synthetic does not break down in the heat, and our Cats are air cooled. Here in Nevada, the 'air' is anything but cooling during the summer...!

 

The only area where petroleum oil has an advantage is PRICE. It is really ridiculous that we are still using this archaic stuff. Once it was the only choice we had, but those days are long gone.

 

reconranger, I think your oil cahnge intervals is over kill. I have been in the automotive repair business all my life. My vehicles fall apart before the engines and trans die. I wear out a vehicle. I am very good a squeezing every last mile out of them.

Our Rubicon has over 5200 miles and 612 hours on it. Only twice have I ever had to add oil between oil changes. When I change the oil it is still quite clean, and so are the oil filters.

So far I have changed the oil 10 times with the fist oil change at 100 miles and the second one 400 miles later. Since then I have changed the oil and filter every 500 miles. That works out to an oil change roughly every 59 hours of riding time. Honda recommends at a minimum every 100 hours. I know a guy with a Honda 450 with over 8500 miles on it and he changes his oil every 100 hours, regardless of mileage and it uses no oil and runs like new.

I can not see any gain or advantage in changing your oil every 5 hours other than personal satisfaction. The oil is neither dirty of even close to starting to break down. JMO

 

Spectra-The 450R engine idles at a higher rpm than redline on a mellow little utility (Honda pushrod) engine. These engines are just hitting the powerband at 8,000 rpm. An extreme example is the little CRF250, which redlines at 12,000rpm! (Hope to see this engine in a 300EXish frame soon!) At that speed, that little pankace piston goes up and down 100 times per second! These engines are hard on their oil, and that is compounded by the fact that you don't have any oil to spare with only an 0.8 quart oil capacity.

Honda has a vested interest in presenting their machines as being "low maintenance". Sure they are going to recommend the longest oil change interval possible.......it's just good advertising. But, those maintenance interval numbers are based on ideal conditions, not choking desert dust. If you read the advice of engine builders, they are talking oil changes even more frequent than 5 hrs. for the 450R. You race on Sunday, and go home and change your oil on Monday.

"Some people should, in my opinion, clearly use a synthetic oil. You should be using a synthetic if you have one of these new 4-stroke MX bikes. These MX bikes hold only about one quart of oil, all of them have marginal cooling systems, and if there's a more severe use of an engine than MX, I don't want to be physically present when it happens." http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html#Oil

 

On my KTM I change the oil every 10/15 hrs of riding time. If race, I change it after the 4 hr race. The 2 strokes get a gear oil change every 10 hrs . The rest of the thumpers is about every 15/20 hrs with conventional oil. The ktm and the 2 strokes get synthetic oil. I do consider it over kill but the oil is relatively cheap to me. Especially compared to what it protects.

Now to defend the dont change the oil crowd. The 69 mini trail I have is all original inside, and I didnt get a hold of it until '89. I do know that the guy I got it from, only added oil to it for the 12 years he owned it. It smokes a little cold, but runs great. I change it every 15/20 hrs. Definitely overkill. lol

 

My wifes mom has a 1980 Suzuki 125 with just a little ove 3000 miles on it. It has NEVER had the oil changed, just add to. It doesn't smoke at all. It still runs and shifts like new. Over the years everyone has had the opportunity to beat the crap out of it.

They also have a '86 Honda Fat Cat. It too has never had the oil changed but it only has a little over 800 miles on it.

I could never let anything go like that.

 

It's a tribute to these machines that they can take so much abuse!

If a machine will hold up with no oil changes, just think what it could do with dilligent maintenance!!!

Never buy a used vehicle!

 

I cahnge mine every 100hrs of run time. I average 15miles a day every day. I have over 5500 miles on each sportsman with no engine probems. Maint. is a necessity if you want them to last.