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Hey guys just got my bike all set up for the season, and while thumbing through the manual I came across a perplexing situation.

During my last several years on here, I've noticed a lot of you will change your oil every 1500 miles or so (maybe I'm just having a bad morning and remembering this completely inaccurately), and last riding season I put on 5100 miles on the Shadow with the only oil changes being at 600 and 4000.

Just changed my oil now for the new season, but the next scheduled isn't till 8000, which oddly enough according to the manual is the second reccomended one. Basically it states to change your oil every 8000 miles, which doesn't make much sense to me. What are your thoughts on this?

I wish I had a scanner so I could scan this page on.

My opinion? Oil is cheap. Oil changes don't take a lot of time. Fresh oil every 2k miles for my older bikes ('86 and '89).

If you really want to know if your oil change interval is right, drop the cash on an oil analysis.

On a Honda Shadow, every 4000 is fine.

2000 or 3000 won't hurt

zarakand wrote:Basically it states to change your oil every 8000 miles

That's a long interval.

I usually change my oil at 3000km (1800 miles) intervals and filter every second oil change. One of the cheapest ways to keep your engine in good shape.

During my last several years on here, I've noticed a lot of you will change your oil every 1500 miles or so

Note to self: buy more stock in oil companies.

Every 3000-3500kms. I always to the filter each time - but thats just me!

yeah, always change the filter with the oil. If you don't your running new oil through a dirty filter!

KeithB wrote:yeah, always change the filter with the oil. If you don't your running new oil through a dirty filter!

Filters are designed to trap large contaminants in the oil. If you use short oil change intervals you can get away without changing the fitler every time.

One thing I would recommend to those that store the bike for the winter is to change the oil right before you store it. Oil picks up moisture and acids as a byproduct of combustion. You don't want that stuff eating away at the inside of your engine and tranny while it sits for several months.

For that reason, I change every 3,000 miles or every 4 months, whichever comes first. Since I ride year-round, it's usually the mileage interval that comes up before the time interval.