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[jefrs]

Have fun with the scottish ride. I've just come back south from Scotland, very few to none Shell stations up there. A few BP, one in Fort William; not the end of civilisation but fuel tends to be 75 miles that way or 75 miles the other. Yes there is a difference between premium fuel and the cooking variety, not so much the RON as cleaner burning. You may want to mark out your map route beforehand.

[jefrs]

The 60s B350 used to dump a quarter pint of hot oil on my boot whenever I pulled it onto the stand, prolly warped primary case. The C5 doesn't seem to use a drop of oil, the height of the bubble in the window seems arbitrary: angle of bike, slope of ground, motor hot or cold, state of weather, phase of moon - if there's oil in there it's ok (do not over fill). Don't pay too much attention to the dipstick, it's not accurate, for "indication only". One thing I've learnt from vehicles is to keep an eye on the state of the oil and to change it before it becomes badly discoloured or gets watery thin - the action of the engine literally chews up long-chain oil molecules until they're useless. Synth and semi-synth oils should remain honey coloured, except in a diesel. If you have water ingress you get an emulsion like dirty mayonnaise. If the oil is shot then I'll change it regardless of mileage or whether a service is due. By doing this our Volvo 245 got some 335,000 miles with the engine a sweet as a nut - before it got written off by an AEG truck-towing truck driven by an idiot (we were parked).