How hard is a track day on oil?

[Huzband]

Yeah, I know. Another stinkin' oil thread. But this one's technical.

 

Really, I'm wondering about the affects on oil after running the engine so (relatively) hard.

 

When I did Jennings last Sat., we had four thirty minute on-track sessions. After two warm up laps, I consistently kept the revs between 6-7.5k, tapping the rev limiter two or three times.

 

I currently have Motul 3000 10w40 (dino) in there, with about 500 miles on it before the track day.

 

Was the flogging enough to warrant an early change, or am I just over-estimating my abilities to wear out a motor?

[David]

Danny, I did several tests of the oil in my GS after some pretty intense track days, and saw no difference in wear patterns. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Tires, however, are another issue!

[Mister Tee]

On these engines, probably not very hard, particularly if you run synthetic. On a sportbike, where you get almost twice the specific power output and your motor spends a great deal of time in the 10,000+ rpm range, it can be quite hard on oil. I normally go 5,000 mile intervals on the gsxr for street riding, but I change it every track weekend. I tracked the RT once and didn't worry about it.

 

Now tires though...

[Huzband]

That's kinda the direction I was thinking, but wanted some validation.

 

Tires are good, but I think next time I'll put something a bit stickier on for the day. The Conti Road Attacks performed well & were very predictable. I had a lot of feel going into turns, even with the ABS engaged. The back end stepped out once on exit with an abrupt up-shift, but came right back. Rider error there.

 

Thanks for the input. I'll leave it for another 3k.

 

David, if you have any critique on my technique, I welcome your input. Well, anyone really.

 

Linky

[Mister Tee]

I thought the Road Attacks were some pretty sticky tires, but you might consider running Pilot Road 2's. In fact, those are actually decent tires to run on any bike for starter track days, and I'm starting to run them myself on track instruction days. The sidewalls are the standard Pilot Power compound with a harder center compound. Standard PP's are always a good tire, but I wouldn't run PP2CT's or non-DOT race tires on something as heavy as an RT.

 

Be careful with the linked brakes. I normally trail brake pretty heavily in to the turns, but the first time I did that with the RT it was almost a mini crisis.