First Synthetic Oil Change

[N.M.smallponiesbigsmiles]

what does any one know about synthetic oils for are ninjetes ???

[SV-Mark]

After the ninjettes first 600 miles I glugged her full of full synthetic oil, let the beating begin!!

[N.M.smallponiesbigsmiles]

Thanks for the quick response Im full of questions ? alot has changed in 20yrs.Any way what type synthetic would you recomend ?do you need a different type fillter ?

[SV-Mark]

I used Motorex PowerSynth 4T, and the stock filter (actually a Fram from Cycle Gear), I have faith that this will do the trick, For break in I kept it under 6k for the 1st 300 miles, then occasional non sustained runs to the 8k neighborhood up to the 600 miles, I have ridden it on the freeway a couple times since the oil change hitting 9k on occasion, I have yet to wring it's neck to 12k but I believe it will hold together just fine, the recomended break in was a bit of overkill in my opinion, 500 miles at a max speed of 36mph would have taken me a year.

I am planning a 6-700 mile trip in the next couple weeks and after seeing the video on kawasaki's website about the guy who rode an ex250 from Key West to Prudoe Bay Alaska, I feel the ninja is up to the task.

Get some miles on it and have some fun

[N.M.smallponiesbigsmiles]

Thanks again , Yes sir i was freaking out on the 4k 35mph. as well.i bought a 650 klr back in june an o8,the owners manual same thing 4k but on the 650 its alot safer speed,got suspious. whent to the dealer to see whats up.Lucked out thier happed to be a Kaw rep.there,He said the 4ks there in case someone goes out & just blows the engine on like purpose.The Kaw peapole can come back and say ah ya exseaded 4k no warrenty. Said break it in like ya ride,if he only knew,do alot of city or in town alot of start stops cause youre breaking in the tranny as well,said thier was a rev limiter.if going on an exstened ride varry the rpms dont stay at a rs.Well thats pretty much how we did it back in the day,made the rest of my break in alot more in joyabul,i baybed it cause it is my little green baby 1st street bike ive ever owned and i Love it ride it more than the 650. Now i ride it up thier in the 11s & 12s ill change over to syn. after the 4000 check up.LORD willing i plan a trip to denver about 500mi from hear plan on takeing the ninja this week end or next.Any way thanks again i apologize for my poor spelling.Do from working 2 jobs and sleeping though high school so i could get a 250 ossa six day 1974 back in the day dont seem that long ago. anyway thanks David

[Sailariel]

I am not so sure that Synthetic Oil is worth the extra expense. An engine is really not truely broken in until it has 1500 miles logged. Synthetic, because it is so slippery, prolongs engine break in. For road riding at reasonable speeds, the oil Kawasaki recommends, its house brand, is more than adequate. Racing applicarions are a different story. You still need to change your oil and filter every 2500 miles. I have been around motorcycles and performance cars for 50 years and have rebuilt a lot of engines. I still think synthetic is overkill.

[JCCJMM_]

I run Valvoline 10w40 in the 07.
I have run Wal Mart brand (maybe the same as Castrol GTX) oil in my cars and trucks for years.
I am not so much a believer in the type of oil/filter that you use, I think that timely regular maintenance is the key.

Oh yeah, I have NEVER believed in the 5,000-7,000 mile oil change hype.
Based on what I have seen, fuel gets past the rings and contaminates oil.
I 100% agree with the 2,500 interval.

[SV-Mark]

I would have postponed the full synthetic thing a few more miles had I known it wouldn't be fully broken in till 1500. But since I had accelerated the break in procedure and not followed the manufacturers guidelines precisely (see above) I figured it wouldn't hurt (and I had a gallon sitting in the garage left over from a different bike.)

I do believe you should allways use a motorcycle specific oil, since it lubes the transmission as well, and avoid standard automotive type motor oil.

I think I'm ready to ride the bike without babying it now.

good times

[JCCJMM_]

About a year ago, I read an article from a guy they call Moto-man. He claims that a motorcycle engine is 95% broken in at 50 miles.

I did not follow the Kawasaki break in recommendation. It did not feel right bogging the motor for so many miles. I rode soft for about 200 miles and then let 'er fly!

[Sailariel]

Mark, You should be OK with your bike. If it starts to use oil, then I would go back to conventional MC oil until the bike was broken in. Personally, I use what is recommended--10W40 Kawasaki Oil. In my Yamaha Outboard, I use Yamalube. They have their own additives that their engineers know work best. Again for racing--use what the racing guys use. My stance is that if you ride on the road--even "performance ride", it is not racing. Racing demands a whole new set of expectations from your engine. Racing oils can gum up your engine if used in road riding conditions. We have a guy here who has a Honda Sport Bike and uses Sunoco 260 gasoline and synthetic oil that costs $15.00 a Qt. His bike does not spec out as well as the EX250R in terms of compression and peak RPM. In my view, he is throwing money away. I doubt that his engine will last any longer than mine.

[SV-Mark]

Yes, I think it will be fine, after todays ride with the flogging I delivered the bike, it seems just fine. I have seen some abused ex250s that were together after tens of thousands of miles, I think the engineers got the bugs worked out of this design

[Sailariel]

My father-in-law is a retired manufacturing engineer who was previously a tool and die maker. This is a person who is a stickler for precision and quality. His impression of the Ninja is that it is a well thought out, well made, quality machine that is certainly worth the money. It is really all the machine anybody needs. If I were to go touring, I would probably consider a metric cruiser in the 650 to 750cc range with a sidecar.

[islanderman7]

I hit the 5000 mile mark today and decided to switch over from using conventional Castrol motorcycle oil to Shell Rotella® T Synthetic with API CJ -4 Technology. Can I just say wow. Shifting was smooth, like slicing through butter.

The only drawback that I noticed was that my engine did not idle steadily at 1500 RPM, its almost as if it was running rich, so that means I have to go back in and adjust the mixture screw settings.

[kkim]

what is the idle speed set to and what are the symptoms of the idle problem? don't understand what you mean by seems to be running rich.

[islanderman7]

It is set at 1500, so when I blip the throttle, it falls below the set point and then takes awhile for it to come back up. Doesn't that indicate it running rich?

Before the switch, when I blipped the throttle, it would return to the set point right away.

[kkim]

yep, that's a sign of a rich idle circuit. can't imagine why changing the oil would make a diff, though.

I assume you're doing this after the bike is fully warmed up?

[islanderman7]

Yeah, after I took it for a 20 mile spin was testing how it idled thereafter and found that it was running rich. Thought it was funny that it would be doing that after switching to synthetic, so just wanted to see if it that was common or odd.

[kkim]

adjust the mixture screws and let us know. when's the last time you had the carbs synced?

[islanderman7]

Synced them with the ghetto bottle method around 3k.

[kkim]

should be close then.

try adjusting the mixture screws and see what happens. let us know if the idling condition improves.

[Alex]

/moving to 2008+ section

[Sound Wave]

took my bike out today for the first time since switching to semi-synthetic oil. i usually have my idle set to about 1300 rpms. today after riding around for a bit, it was running at 1900 rpms. i meant to adjust it back down when i got home, but i forgot to.

this may have been answered before, but does the rpms usually rise after swtiching over to synthetics?

other than that, my bike ran fine. actually the loud "clunk" i usually get at 1-2 and 2-3 has been replaced with a "click", so i am happy.

[TrueFaith]

Originally Posted by Sound Wave

took my bike out today for the first time since switching to semi-synthetic oil. i usually have my idle set to about 1300 rpms. today after riding around for a bit, it was running at 1900 rpms. i meant to adjust it back down when i got home, but i forgot to.

this may have been answered before, but does the rpms usually rise after swtiching over to synthetics?

other than that, my bike ran fine. actually the loud "clunk" i usually get at 1-2 and 2-3 has been replaced with a "click", so i am happy.

I switched to synthetic recently and have not noticed any change in RPMs. About the only difference I've noticed at all is that the clutch is somewhat smoother, but it's still clunky. I miss my Yamahas, as they would always shift like butta.

[BlueRaven]

i was wondering if i should switch to synthetic oil. my dealership said he recommended it. is there really a benefit?

[bob706]

Originally Posted by BlueRaven

i was wondering if i should switch to synthetic oil. my dealership said he recommended it. is there really a benefit?

It costs more so that fact alone makes it better and thus more benefitial.
Synth oil doesn't break down as quick as conventional oil.

[BlueRaven]

any difference in power and does it accelerate smoother?

[Justanothermp5]

when should u switch to fully synthetic?

im at 700 now and about to do my first oil change
i wanted to do it sooner but i keep pushing it back and im drawing the line here lol

[noche_caliente]

Simon - wait until you have a couple of oil changes out of the way before you switch. And if you keep your eyes peeled, I should be posting a guide to the 600-mile service tomorrow.

[Justanothermp5]

alright cool, sorry bout all the questions, just want to stay informed lol

[bob706]

Originally Posted by BlueRaven

any difference in power and does it accelerate smoother?

Kinda sorta. After I made the switch the engine/exhaust sounded a little deeper. The main difference was in shifting. Extremely smooth. Almost scary smooth. Also noticed a slight incease im mpg.

[TrueFaith]

Originally Posted by bob706

Kinda sorta. After I made the switch the engine/exhaust sounded a little deeper. The main difference was in shifting. Extremely smooth. Almost scary smooth. Also noticed a slight incease im mpg.

Wish I could say the same. The improvement in ease of shifting is noticeable, but this bike still shifts like a dog. I still have to kick (and I mean kick) it down the gears coming to a stop light at times and it's still clunky as hell. I've never had a wet clutch that was so stiff and I typically use a lot of clutch. I'm hoping it will loosen up a bit after it has more miles on it.

[BlueRaven]

that's funny i fell that i already shift with ease. you might want to have your clunky clutch checked out but what do i know this is my first bike.

[Sound Wave]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith

Wish I could say the same. The improvement in ease of shifting is noticeable, but this bike still shifts like a dog. I still have to kick (and I mean kick) it down the gears coming to a stop light at times and it's still clunky as hell. I've never had a wet clutch that was so stiff and I typically use a lot of clutch. I'm hoping it will loosen up a bit after it has more miles on it.

you know a whole lot more about bikes than i do, but i posted a thread a while back about my bike having problems shifting gears (actually, you even posted in it). did you do those things that alex suggested to me? it helped with my symptoms. that clutch lever gap was the main thing for mine, although adjusting the shift rod helped too.

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showt...ighlight=shift

[TrueFaith]

I've tweaked about everything I can to make the shifting smoother. Between that and switching to synthetic oil there has been some improvement, but it's still pretty "clunky". The fact that I could notice the slight difference in shifting with the synthetic oil makes me think it's the design of the transmission itself that's the problem. This is my second '08 Ninja and I had the exact same stiffness and clunkiness with the first bike. My previous 2 bikes were Yamahas (250 & 400) and they were very smooth. The shifting on the Yamaha 250 compared to the Ninja 250 was like night and day. The shift lever easily popped into the next gear with just the slightest of input and I never had the problems downshifting that I have with the Ninja. Not that it happens every time I shift, but it happens enough that it's noticeable and distracting. I'm hoping that things will improve as the transmission wears in a bit. This is a comparatively inexpensive bike and it's never going to shift quite as well as a top of the line F1 or CBR1000 with a slipper clutch, but it would be nice if it shifted at least as smoothly as my old Yamaha 250.

[gizmogamez]

700??? WOW, i'm on my 4th oil change at 1000km, doing my first filter change though.

Originally Posted by Justanothermp5

when should u switch to fully synthetic?

im at 700 now and about to do my first oil change
i wanted to do it sooner but i keep pushing it back and im drawing the line here lol

[CodE-E]

Originally Posted by gizmogamez

700??? WOW, i'm on my 4th oil change at 1000km, doing my first filter change though.

Isn't that rather unnecessary? The 250's service chart says one needs to change the oil and filter after 1000km, and after that every year or 12000km, and "more frequently" under severe conditions ("...dusty, wet, muddy, high speed, or frequent start/stopping").

[kkim]

Originally Posted by CodE-E

Isn't that rather unnecessary?

that depends on who you are.

don't believe everything you read in the manual. That is the minimum you would want to do to keep the warranty in effect.

[gizmogamez]

Originally Posted by CodE-E

Isn't that rather unnecessary? The 250's service chart says one needs to change the oil and filter after 1000km, and after that every year or 12000km, and "more frequently" under severe conditions ("...dusty, wet, muddy, high speed, or frequent start/stopping").

Also during the break in period, they do recomend doing it more.
Now that I've done my 1000km change I'll do another at 4000km and then chainge to synthetic at 8000km(unless I do more track days then expected) I do ride my baby hard..and I'm a little rough on my bike as well lol so having good lube is important lol

[ScorpionNinja]

Originally Posted by islanderman7

I hit the 5000 mile mark today and decided to switch over from using conventional Castrol motorcycle oil to Shell Rotella® T Synthetic with API CJ -4 Technology. Can I just say wow. Shifting was smooth, like slicing through butter.

The only drawback that I noticed was that my engine did not idle steadily at 1500 RPM, its almost as if it was running rich, so that means I have to go back in and adjust the mixture screw settings.

Hey i bought some of the Rotella T 5w40 that islanderman bought, the SAME exact kind! i Noticed taht Kelly posted a pic of Rotella T, it was a DIFF Bottle, and that bottle has diff API ratings n stuff... so im asking... can the Ninja 250R use BOTH? or is 1 of the Rotella T syn 5w40s Better, for the Ninja then the other?

[kkim]

essentially the same. I believe the newer is an updated product of the other. I remember PMs that islanderman and myself had about the differences and from what I could tell from the Shell website, the new oil is acceptable to use in our bikes, though not all of the specs are the same, as you mentioned.