Riding TE 310 to Offroad Destination & Oil Change Intervals

[2wheeler]

How far one way should we be willing to ride at 45 - 55 mph speeds?
(Stock Gearing. No tach rpms are unknown)


With no hour meter, what is a good oil change interval?

 

[reveille]

What is your version of stock gearing?

 

[2wheeler]

Its got the factory 13 x 40

 

[reveille]

Sorry, I don't think I could help you there since the dealer installed 13/50 on mine before I purchased it. 13/40 was installed by the factory to satisfy the EPA regulations but wasn't intended to be the preferred gearing so you may have a hard time getting feedback on that setup. I have since switched to 13/48 which is still pretty high IMHO. I would think with 13/40 you could go 8 hours between oil changes as long as you don't hold the throttle open at high RPM's for too long.
P.S. You say you are riding to an off road destination with 13/40? When you get there are you changing the gearing to something lower for off road then? I am having a hard time imagining 13/40 off road...

 

[2wheeler]

No spare sprockets on hand. Looking for input based on the current gearing and non working hour meter.

 

[Johnrg]

10-20 miles was fine with 45 gearing. With stock no issues. Just vary speed a bit. It will be clear when engine speed feels relaxed. Go to gearing commander.com and see what actual rpms are with various gears. Consider 1 qt. Of oil in the sump as opposed to 3-4 in most street engines. I have 1,700 miles to date and while 99% dirt, have had to hit the pavement at times. Roads being 45-55 mph limited routes.

 

[huskylove]

I rode a bit over an hour at 65-70 with my te511 on the freeway, bike was fine at 7500rpm. My butt and hands were not. I would do 30 minutes of that MAX at 55mph with higher cruising gearing. It is officially my least favorite thing to do. Oh yea then I rode back almost 2 hours on side roads, and boulevards stop light to stop light. That was better.

On a 310? eeeck!

If you want to do 55 comfortably, I would toss on a 15T front. Or maybe find a quick change sprocket setup.

 

[AlwynMike]

I'm running a 12/53 at the moment.
50mph is fine all day - 7000rpm
With a 13/53, then 55 is dead easy, with the odd blast up to 70 or so.

Reveille - 8 hours between oil changes??? Do you take oil out on your day's run??

I change my oil every two ride outs, which equate to around 250 miles

Mike

 

[2wheeler]

All good info! Bear with me, I am coming from my little 72 Suzuki 185 two stroke. Have not hit any serious dirt with the Husky yet. Got 105 miles and 2 oil changes done.

Gearing commander is great! Looks like the Husky with 13/40 in 6th gear will be at 5200 rpm at 51 mph. That is similar to the Suzuki according to its tach which redlines at 8k. The Husky engines redline around 11k? I think?

Yes the amount of oil in the Husky. The Suzuki holds 550cc for the gearbox/clutch but has the oil injection for crank, rod, piston, etc.

The better off road riding is further away than I would want to ride the Husky or Suzuki anyway. However, there are some decent sections within 20 miles.

Given what I have learned so far, I should be ok within that 20 mile radius with the current gearing. Roads are secondary ones with varying speeds and posted limits of 45 & 55. Change oil around 200 miles.

 

[reveille]

Reveille - 8 hours between oil changes??? Do you take oil out on your day's run??

I change my oil every two ride outs, which equate to around 250 miles

Mike

Yes, I change it on the trail at lunch time. LOL

 

[Rizzkid]

I have 600 miles on my 2012 TE310 with 2 oil changes. If you race all the time you need oil changes more often. I just trail ride (not race mode) and change the oil every few hundred miles and I know this is fine. I just went offroad last weekend and covered 6o miles of offroad trails over a 7 hour day. I now will change the oil again.

Dont overthink it and just ride!!! The bikes are well built and not made of butter. If you look in the manual you will see two maintenance schedules, one for for competition race mode and one that is not. I follow a schedule somewhere in the middle since I don't race, but get on the throttle often.

 

[River-Runner]

Speaking of oil changes on the 2012 TE310 - we have a TE310 and I have come to hate / worry about the breather hose connected to the drain plug.

Have you folks seen the new Zip-Ty part to reroute the breather tube from the nipple fitting on the oil drain plug to a fitting that goes into the oil fill opening above the oil filter? You replace the drain bolt with nipple with a normal bolt - no funky hose and radiator clamp to mess with.

I have one in the mail to put on our 310.

 

[bmah]

Speaking of oil changes on the 2012 TE310 - we have a TE310 and I have come to hate / worry about the breather hose connected to the drain plug.

Have you folks seen the new Zip-Ty part to reroute the breather tube from the nipple fitting on the oil drain plug to a fitting that goes into the oil fill opening above the oil filter? You replace the drain bolt with nipple with a normal bolt - no funky hose and radiator clamp to mess with.

I have one in the mail to put on our 310.

Just installed the drain back kit on my '12 TE310 yesterday. It will make oil changes less frustrating with the breather hose now re-routed to the oil fill plug. You need to pump oil into the filler plug now though, through a hose. Definitely an improvement over the stock setup.

 

[bigmo]

I have 600 miles on my 2012 TE310 with 2 oil changes. If you race all the time you need oil changes more often. I just trail ride (not race mode) and change the oil every few hundred miles and I know this is fine. I just went offroad last weekend and covered 6o miles of offroad trails over a 7 hour day. I now will change the oil again.

Dont overthink it and just ride!!! The bikes are well built and not made of butter. If you look in the manual you will see two maintenance schedules, one for for competition race mode and one that is not. I follow a schedule somewhere in the middle since I don't race, but get on the throttle often.

I agree, the vast majority of us Americans change our oil WAY too much. I was stunned moving to Europe to find that annual (MAYBE annual) oil changes were the norm...and this was not some recent sythetic based decision. The rest of the world is much more judicious with their petrolium.

I found a place with $15 oil analysis - it is worth the time to REALLY know. I found that I was changing out fluids between 5-20x too often. On my PWC, the oil change is an absolute bear - it is just flat out a mess. The manual calls for a maximum of 12 hour changes. After two analysis (a total of $30 well spent) I have now moved to 70 hour changes - and we use it between 60-80 hours annually. This saved me a ton of heartache. The ski is 11 years old now, with zero motor issues.

I USED to buy into the 3K changes on our cages, but over the years with real analysis to back it up, I have moved into the 12K-15K range with zero regrets. These oil change are not cheap in time nor money and having the right info makes the decision quite a bit easier.

I ran my 449 for 20 miles and dumped the OEM oil. The first "real" fill was run for 490 miles. My analysis came back "Extend Change Interval to 980 miles" - I am guessing 2x is as far as they will "project". All measures were normal at 480 miles. I did the same on my BMW and sent in the first "real" sample at 1200 miles and they sent back another double. Clearly we over wrench on our bikes.

 

[oregonsage]

I go 8-10k on a car with synthetic unless Im towing loads.
But with only a liter to play with in a bike Im willing to change a half dozen times a year and recycle that almost new stuff I took out. Cheap insurance.

 

[2wheeler]

The oil analysis info in interesting. I remember the LS1 (GM V8) crowd doing it. Got an LS1 now I need to let go of.

The Drain Back kit seems so obvious its a wonder why the factory chose to route the hose the way they did. Anyone know what the SS filter is actually filtering? It makes me wonder if it is there to catch crud from the hose.