Oil

Agree with DD, and make sure you are checking the oil level with the bike upright and on level ground.

 

Had 25000 miles on my '15 TigerXCX when I sold it a few weeks ago, and it never used a drop. Same goes for the Tiger abs I put 24000 miles on before that. I'm assuming the same on the new Bonneville I just purchased.

 

My Tiger 800 used at a minimum of half a litre between services until it had done over 20,000 then eased too tiny top ups.

 

Greetings people,
I had a 2016 Tiger 800 up to a few months ago, now sold he's the tale. The lads and I went up to Scotland for a tour for a week, the Tiger had approx. 1,600 miles on the clock and had had its 500 mile sevice/oil and filter change etc. During the tour we did around 800 further miles then on the sunday prior to going home the next day we filled up the bikes and I decided to check the oil level (thankfully!) I was horrified to find that you could only just see the oil level. As we were at Newton Stewart with no bike shops anywhere near we had a problem, thankfully we found a garage that had semi synthetic oil I put a full lire of oil into the bike which only just showed a level. Rode home very carefully and had the bike collected by the Triumph suppliers by van, I refused to ride it to the dealers. The bike was checked over and a leak found apparently from a faulty gasket MMM! new gasket and clean up 1st year service done but its in your mind.
I was told that they do you use oil and quite normal, for a new bike this is not exeptable in my opinion and really put me off the bike. I had a 2011 Tiger 800 which used no oil at all between services and my pal his Tiger does not oil. Maybe I was unlucky but have a read on the Tiger 800 forum. Whatever you do check the oil frequently, hope this helps.
Cheers, Pete.

 

Well, duff gasket aside, what you find ‘acceptable’ and observed reality leaves a gap!

This is from Lycoming on their piston aero engines:

‘A new, rebuilt or overhauled engine should receive the same start, warm-up and preflight checks as any other engine. There are some aircraft owners and pilots who would prefer to use low power settings for cruise during the break-in period. This is not recommended. A good break-in requires that the piston rings expand sufficiently to seat with the cylinder walls. This seating of the ring with the cylinder wall will only occur when pressures inside the cylinder are great enough to cause expansion of the piston rings. Pressures in the cylinder only become great enough for a good break-in when power settings above 65% are used........
For those who still think that running the engine hard during break-in falls into the category of cruel and unusual punishment, there is one more argument for high power settings during engine break-in. The use of low power settings does not expand the piston rings enough, and a film of oil is left on the cylinder walls. The high temperatures in the combustion chamber will oxidize this oil film so that it creates a condition commonly known as glazing of the cylinder walls. When this happens, the ring break-in process stops, and excessive oil consumption frequently occurs. The bad news is that extensive glazing can only be corrected by removing the cylinders and rehoning the walls. This is expensive, and it is an expense that can be avoided by proper break-in procedures.‘


Bottom line - some oil consumption on new engines is to be expected. It will reduce to near zero and then increase as an engine wears. If your break in is too gentle you may even aggravate oil consumption by delaying full ring break in......

 

This appears to agree with an article I read recently:

http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Makes you think!

Gled.