Well, it's great to have someone with some knowledge posting information about engine oil. My apologies for hijacking the thread 
My K12RS uses a bit of oil at 33K miles. I've had it since 20K miles and the PO had put dino oil in it. I've been using Mobil 1 gold cap. With either, I'd estimate oil usage at about a quart in 2500 miles. The only symptom is sometimes a puff of smoke behind me when I pull away from a long light, particularly if it is a somewhat agressive launch. I've heard that some times these bikes have difficulty with stuck rings and read a procedure for soaking in something very high detergent like ATF IIRC to free them. Do you think it would be worth trying a change with Redline to do the same?
If I did, could I supplement with Mobil 1 or should I stick with Redline for makeup?
What do you think about TBN (Total Base Number) for testing oil? I ran a TBN on my K75RT after 10K miles on Mobil 1 red cap and got 6. (I've never had to top up the oil in the K75RT so it was all original oil.)
I figured I could go with 10K change intervals on the big K, but since I would add 4 quarts over that period, somewhere around half the oil would be new at 10K anyway. Unless the oil usage drops, I think I only need to change oil to replace the oil filter.
thanks,
hank
My K12RS uses a bit of oil at 33K miles. I've had it since 20K miles and the PO had put dino oil in it. I've been using Mobil 1 gold cap. With either, I'd estimate oil usage at about a quart in 2500 miles. The only symptom is sometimes a puff of smoke behind me when I pull away from a long light, particularly if it is a somewhat agressive launch.
I've heard that some times these bikes have difficulty with stuck rings and read a procedure for soaking in something very high detergent like ATF IIRC to free them. Do you think it would be worth trying a change with Redline to do the same?If I did, could I supplement with Mobil 1 or should I stick with Redline for makeup?
What do you think about TBN (Total Base Number) for testing oil? I ran a TBN on my K75RT after 10K miles on Mobil 1 red cap and got 6. (I've never had to top up the oil in the K75RT so it was all original oil.)
I figured I could go with 10K change intervals on the big K, but since I would add 4 quarts over that period, somewhere around half the oil would be new at 10K anyway. Unless the oil usage drops, I think I only need to change oil to replace the oil filter.
thanks,
hank
