Forum

[jefrs]

That poses the problem of how to get all the oil out in order to meter the correct amount measured in. On account of it being practically impossible to extract all the old oil, some 600ml or more remains trapped inside. Will the dealership be doing this for you?

[nigelphoto]

Rattlebattle . . . the oil change at 305 miles was precisely measured at 2.55 litres, which happened to coincide with the top mark in the sight glass. The dry capacity for the 535 engine is 2.75 litres and it has 3 sump plugs (crankcase, magnetic filter at the pickup and oil chamber to the rear). I have since topped up with precisely 800cc in 400 miles, again bringing the level up to the top mark in the sight glass. The industry standard oil consumption for an air rolled m'cycle is 700 cc per 1,000 miles - thought you'd like to know that. Now it ain't blowing out the breather as I replaced a rather cracked OE rubber breather pipe with braided clear pvc pipe and there is no sign of oil mist (as an aside, did you know the word 'mist' in German is slang for shit?). But I ain't talking any of that and I'm being very precise in all my measurements - there is no imprecise assessment around this neck of the woods . . . we shall do the MotoGB test and see where we go from there.

[Rattlebattle]

Fine; in that case I believe there must be a problem. Thanks for the German lesson. Sadly I only have A levels in French, Spanish and Latin (insofar as foreign/classical languages are concerned), so, no, I didn't know.

[Smudger]

This sounds like the usual misleading sight glass reading to me.
if it's not leaking any or burning any then it's fine, it's just down to the inaccuracies of the sight glass. Mines all over the place.
For peace of mind I wold drain it as best you can including all drain plugs and plates and oil filter housing, put 2.5 litres in, ignore the sight glass and if it's not leaking or burning any then the oils in there and at the correct amount.
I would drain it ASAP though as if you've been topping it up thinking you're losing oil, it could now be overfilled which is not good.
don't use the sight glass as any sort of measurement just use the volume you're putting in.

[PeteF]

Don't these things have a dipstick? Could one be devised?

[albert]

Sounds very odd as my continental 535 is just about run in with 1,080 on the clock and has not used a drop from new. I was told by my dealer to read the sight glass when running at just over tickover to get an accurate reading. if checked when not running it shows nothing in the sight glass. as peteF says a dipstick would be far better.

[Les]

What caught me out on this one was to put the bike on the side stand before lifting on to the center stand because the oil will disappear from the glass when leaning over and it will not return when upright until you run the engine, the only way to get any sort of idea is to run the bike on the center stand I normally switch off and wait a minute or so before checking, if you do add oil you will need to run it again before rechecking

[nigelphoto]

Albert - if you try to check the level while the engine is running you'll find that there will be at least 500cc in the rocker boxes, tappet chest, oil ways, and so forth. The correct way of checking the oil is by the method shown on p48 of the Owners Manual.

[albert]

Your comments make a lot of sense as there would be oil lurking about all over the place, but checking this method for some reason seems to give the same reading as checking on fast idle, problem is, leave it too long and there is nothing in the sight glass at all, surely it should remain at same level?

[hagis]

Hi mate, interesting to read your comments on running in your conti 535, I have just completed 1200 miles on mine and tried to run it in as per the book, and did the first 300 miles in the lower gears below 3000 revs and below 50 mph, increased to 50mph for the next 700 miles this is hard to do as this bike does not like 50mph in 5th gear 60/70 yes, so we used the gears to keep the revs down and boy oh boy was I glad to get to 1000 miles, increased the revs to 3500 for the next 100 miles and to 4000 revs to 1200 miles and now with the increased speed this bike is a real pleasure to ride, Have not had any issues with this bike other than the gauze filter on the bottom of the sump was covered in a sticky substance at 300 miles and was in need of a clean, have checked this filter at 600 miles and 1000 miles and found it to be clean so this was new build debris, We to were concerned with our oil level as it appears if this bike is left on its side stand oil gets trapped some where and gives a false reading we check our level as per the book IE, run engine till warm put bike on main stand switch of engine and check level when cool and our oil level has always been spot on using this method, The only question I would ask RE about this bike is why build a classic British café racer and then put a speedo on that is graduated in kms in large numerals and miles in small numerals, wrong way round surely?.