SWM RS300R Oil And Filter Change

 While almost two years has passed since we bought the SWM RS300R, it doesn’t feel like we have done much riding with it. But with a ride day coming up next week and the “we have had this bike almost two years” in mind, I decided it was time to do an oil and filter change on her.

I took her for a quick spin along some power line easement near home to get her nicely warmed up (and to have some fun) before I dropped the oil. 

Pulling the sump plug saw the hot and very black slippery stuff dump into my catch pan. 

Hmmmm…..that is very dirty looking oil. How many kilometres has this bike actually done? Checking the odometer I was surprised to see exactly 1300km indicated!! We bought the bike with just 560km on the clock and I must say I was surprised to see so many kilometres. Thinking about it though, Will brought the bike down to Forbes last year when Dad passed away. At the time I thought it would be a way for him to stay in a good head space while dealing with such an upsetting situation. I know he rode it a lot at the time but never actually checked the odometer. It does hold a healthy (for a dirt bike) 1.8 litres of oil but if I had checked, I would have done this oil and filter change 12 months ago!

The bike has a couple of mesh filter screens on the left side of the engine. I carefully fished them out taking care not to damage or lose the O rings in the process. 

The screens looked completely clean but I washed them in petrol, hosed them off and dried them in the sun as per the manual.

Next came the cartridge oil filter. It was easily done but I was a bit dismayed at the colour of the filter that I removed!

Yes, these are actually the same size, just a bit of perspective error.

Draining the oil pan I was a bit concerned to see quite a few metal flakes in the bottom.

 Fcuk, not good! 🫤

Many of the shiny bits in the photo below are just the way the light is reflecting off the oil covered clutch/gasket particles but there are quite a few bits of metal in the top centre of the pan. I’d didn’t get a photo of the magnetic sump plug but it also had quite a bit of very fine metal filings stuck to it.

I have moved to Maxima synthetic oil as my go to these days which might be overkill this time around as I will give the bike another oil and filter change in the next five hours or so of operation to try cleaning this crud out of the system.

Clean and clear….. for now. Let see how it looks after Tuesday next week. 🫣

I did tip a little more oil in after this photo was taken to take it to the top mark.

While I was at it she got a precautionary air filter clean too. Not because it was dirty but because it had sat since last October or November and I didn't want to find out the hard way that the filter oil had dried out.

Now she really is ready to go again!

Cheers.

Slippery Shit

 I have been lucky enough to be doing some decent kilometres on the Ducati of late. Some of that was because I located it in Sydney at Steve’s place so I had transport to get out to Orange to visit Dad and some is because I just love riding it. 😁

What this means is that I have arrived at the half way point to the 15 000km service. Talking “oils” usually opens a can of worms on the various forums around the net but in my opinion going 14 000km (it got a change at the first service 1000km mark) on just three litres of the slippery stuff isn’t that conducive to engine longevity.

Ducati specify Shell Advance as the only oil to use. Just like KTM specify “only” using Motorex to ensure warranty compliance. Well, a mate in the industry enlightened me to the reality of this prescribed oil brand use. Apparently Motorex give a cash kick back to KTM dealers if they sell a certain amount of Motorex. I don’t know about the Ducati/Shell tie up but I would bet all of my biscuits that it is the same kickback deal.

So, my mate, who I trust very much, is a Maxima agent (yes, I see the potential conflict here but I trust him) and as such I can access Maxima fully synthetic for a very attractive price. Obviously with this offer on the table I went ahead with a bottle of Maxima’s finest and a genuine Ducati oil filter. I read somewhere that the genuine filter has a pressure switch in it (ala a thermostat I guess) while the engine warms up, hence the genuine purchase there.

Lucy gave me a hand with the change as I had given her a hand changing the oil and filter on her bike last week (yes, she is on Maxima 10W50 as well now). The little Z400 only holds 2 litres so we will change hers every 5000km in future.

I was a bit surprised at how black the Shell Advnce oil was after just 7000km. I would be horrified to run it to the 15 000km mark! I was also amazed at the torque on the sump plug. Admittedly, Ducati use some sort of sealant on the plug but I reckon it was a 40+nM undo. I didn’t have their sealant when reinstalling so went with some Permatex Blue and used the “elbow feel” 20nM “click” when tensioning it up.😉

She comes with a magnetic sump plug, which I think every bike should come with. Like, how much could it cost? Anyway, It looked pretty clean with just some very very fine swarf on it.

So, it was a very straight forward job and the apprentice Ranga did the refilling honours for me. I am really enjoying showing her how to do these jobs as she is very keen to learn and as an electrical engineering student she is showing me a thing or two with her knowledge. Yes, proud Dad moment here.🤗

So, I am done until the 15 000km service, which I will let Ducati complete so that my warranty remains unblemished. I did stress a bit about mixing the oils put through the engine during it’s lifetime but surely getting fresh fully synthetic oil every 7500km has to be better than letting the Shell stuff run for a full 15000km? I guess time will tell.

Next job will be fitting the Unifilter when I have some spare time.

Till then, Cheers.

Slip, Grip And Stop

After the thrashing that Steve gave my R1 I figured it was time for some TLC...or as any normal person would call it, routine maintenance. But I wouldn't be stopping at the R1 though. No, I have done 5360km(3330mi) on the BMW in the 9 months that I have owned it so it was also due for some lovin'.

Chillertek, The Thrasher......

High Time For Some TLC

Now before you get all excited that this might be going somewhere interesting, I am referring to giving some TLC to my much neglected R1.

Sharing the shed with the Tour Divide rig.

Yep, I have had it in the shed for just over 4 years now and in that time a mere 3957km (2473mi) have rolled under it's wheels. Some may say that this is criminal and a bike deserves to be let out but I counter with my original plan that this bike is a keeper that I want to limit the kilometres (metric miles) that appear on it's odometer.

However, it has been 3 1/2 years and 3177km (1985mi) since I last did an oil and filter change on her. The mileage was probably ok but the 3 1/2 years in this humid environment probably wasn't so good with moisture ingress bound to have occured. 

So it was off to Ultimate Motorcycle Spares for some Motul 5100 and a filter. That rocked me back just shy of 100 beer coupons but divided by 3 1/2 years I guess I can live with that.

I had ridden the bike to go test ride another bike (no, not this but something similar...) , so it was nicely warmed for the old oil to be dropped. Shit that stuff stays hot for a long time though!!

While I waited for the oil to drain I cast an eye over the bike, something I haven't done for at least a few years. Just taking some time to eyeball my bikes, be they motor or pedal, is something that I rarely get to do. My spare/down time is unfortunately spent in a hotel room on the other side of the country and when I am home it is always ALL SYSTEMS GO! It was actually quite relaxing to just sit and sip a cup of tea and relax.

Until I noticed that a bolt was missing of course. Yep, I had noted that when the bike had it's swing arm resprayed a few years back I couldn't get any torque on the bolt that holds the chain slider (and my registration label holder at the time. You can see how they put the rego label on the race stand pickup! ;( ). It had been stripped when they put it back together. I didn't say anything at the time because I felt I had a great outcome with the battery distributors going above and beyond to make my bike right after their product screwed up.

So now it is missing so I will have to look at getting a helicoil or similar to anchor the slider.

Anyway, the job took almost no time to complete but what is with these "easy pour" spouts? 

I think it took longer to pour the oil out of the silly spout on the Motul bottle than the whole rest of the job!

It looks like that new chain finally needs some lube and while I am at it I am sure the brakes need bleeding. 3 1/2 years since I did that little chore and in this sub tropical humidity I guess it is past due as well.

Why this sudden burst of action I sense you thinking? Despite what I wrote above, I do reserve the right to actually put some kilometres on that odometer and well, it looks like I will be heading out for a ride this coming Sunday and Monday and I want everything to be in tip top shape for lots of this.....

I have some visitors to show around the roads of northern New South Wales and South East Queensland and I don't want to let them down......

Cheers.