Oil consumption?

["Keith Winter" <kwinter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Group,

I have a concern about oil consumption rates.  I just talked with 
the service adviser at my dealer and his response was "just keep 
an eye on it" and "it could be normal, depending on how well the 
engine is broken in", so I wanted to run this past the list for 
additional opinions.

My '00 RS has just under 4k miles on it.  The break-in service 
was performed at about 800 miles, during which the standard 
Triumph-branded synthetic was put in.  They used the standard 
gallon size jug, I expect, so the crankcase was just slightly over 
full.

Until this past weekend, the engine had used very little oil; the 
level had dropped some, but it was still near the upper level 
marker.  This past weekend, I had three other riders up to my 
cabin in the Sierra Nevada for some "sporty" riding in the passes 
between California and Nevada.  We strafed the highways and 
twisties pretty good, but I was not riding especially harder than is 
my norm when I'm in that sort of terrain.  Our maximum altitude 
was in the Sonora Pass, which was 9624 feet.  Overall, the 
weekend riding put on about 600 miles.

During the course of the weekend riding, the oil level dropped to 
somewhere between the upper level mark and the center of the 
sight glass.  This seems like kind of a lot of oil use, to me, 
especially in only 600 miles, considering how much was used 
during the previous 2500 miles.

I stuck rigidly to the break-in procedure, so, if there is a problem, 
I don't think it is directly due to improper break-in.

So, my question: is this normal oil usage for a relatively new 
Triumph engine?  Does hard riding at altitude cause any 
increased oil use?  (I can't imagine why it would.) 

Thanks for any inputs.

- -Keith
'00 Sprint RS
Fremont, CA, USA


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