How often do you change the oil.

[Skier]

Do not use car oil in your bike - you'll wreck your clutch

Not true.

Only true in a way... If you use car oil with a detergent it'll let it foam up easier, and also because of the modern anti-friction additives, it can make your clutch plates slip. The anti-friction additive gets into the friction material and even after you change your oil again it'll make your clutch slip.
Wrider
Oh, and about your friend's 10-15K mi between changes... Honestly if he's doing that he's hurting his motor quite a bit.

Unless the container says "NON DETERGENT" on it, it will have detergents in it. Ask any camshaft shop what they think about non detergent oils.

Friction modifiers are present in all modern oil, including motorcycle oil.

Do not use car oil in your bike - you'll wreck your clutch

Not true.

Could you expand on that? Everything I've raed suggests that the friction modifiers in modern car oils are bad for bike clutchs (Ok may not wreck them but are not good).

I change my oils every 5000KM or so. I use Semi Synthetic Motorcycle oil.
I change the Filter every time. And i do it myself.

The dose makes the poison. A small amount of friction modifiers won't hurt your wet clutch. I have used car oils that have less friction modifiers than OEM motorcycle oils.

[PanosGR-nc24]

It is true,not only you will have the clutch damaged(maybe) but you shorten the life of your engine.
Car engine oils are manufactured for cooling and warming the engine of the car more slowly so that the engine of tha car and especially the cylinders and the mettals under the main axle(cant remember the english word-it is the axle that the strokes attach) doesn't grind.
The bikes engine from the other hand may have similar things as the engine of the car f.e as warmer the bike engine gets the better the engine works similar to the car engine.
But....the bike engine needs to warm and cool faster because has less cylinders and the power that is being applied to the strokes and *main axle is more more powerfull for a bike engine type,apart from that the bike engine has faster rpm "opening".

That why wh should ask the manufacter what is the best oil for the specified bike and engine.

In my vfr400r nc24 i use Castrol 4T fully sinthetic(red collored oil) and i change it at 3000km.I change the oil filter every second oil change ALWAYS with genuine honds oil filter because as you may have heard from qualified technicians from famous brands,the imitation oil filter causes redused flow circle of the oil ,in other word it doesn't do the normal rotation of the oil in the engine as the genuine does cause of the cheap manufactoring,thats why they are cheaper also from the genuine ones!

Hope i helped....

[Johnj]

I change every 3000 to 5000 miles. I modified my bike for a spin on automotive oil filter which I change every second oil change.

[DireWolf]

Just changed mine yesterday. Burned the @#$% out of myself......stupid.

Primary case = 20W-50 - Castrol
Gearbox = 85 weight gear oil
Engine oil - 20w-50 Valvoline

Changed oil filter element and adjusted tappets.

I figure it's about every 2K miles if not more frequently.

Enfields are pretty high maintenance, but fun to work on.

[blackmouth]

I change mine every 3k-5k also.
No matter what the manual says, I change the filter at the same time.
Makes no sense to me to just change the oil...I mean, you're already down there and getting dirty, just change the filter while you're at it.

I don't know that I recommend going over 6k without an oil change unless it's recommended in your model-specific manual.

Unless you are changing your oil every 500 miles, I'm of the attitude that you can NOT change your oil TOO often.

[niterider]

In most cases the oil is still doing it's job even with high miles on it. For what it cost for a bike oil change, who wants to run really black dirty looking oil in thier engine.

[jonnythan]

Do not use car oil in your bike - you'll wreck your clutch

Not true.

*Partially* true.

"Not true" is incorrect.

Anyway, I change more on time than distance. Once at the beginning of the season (march or april when I take the bike out) and once around August or so.

I use Rotella T 15W-40.

[Skier]

Do not use car oil in your bike - you'll wreck your clutch

Not true.

*Partially* true.

"Not true" is incorrect.

Anyway, I change more on time than distance. Once at the beginning of the season (march or april when I take the bike out) and once around August or so.

I use Rotella T 15W-40.

The conclusion to a partially correct proof or chain of logic is flawed and therefore not true.

If we want to argue syntax, his statement of car oil wrecking clutches can be invalidated several ways:

1. Huge jerk way: car oil does not wreck dry clutches.
2. The way my post took: there are some car oils that do not wreck motorcycle clutches, therefore the statement of car oils wrecking wet/motorcycle clutches is incorrect. The statement of "some car oils wreck wet clutches" would be entirely correct.

If you're gonna split hairs, split 'em right.

[ManicFZ6]

You are supposed to change it?

[intotherain]

You are supposed to change it?

perhaps... I do mine every 3,000 miles.