My Oil window is very dark, hard to tell if it is full or just covered with a dirty black oil? I just changed oil like 1000 miles ago? Any suggestions? Thanks!

Take a pic of it with the bike standing vertical, lets have a look.

JOG, my Rotella gets black in about 10 minutes and I really mean ten minutes, no kidding. Changed the daughter's ATV oil and didn't notice oil plug washer had fallen in the pan. She rode a big circle in the pasture. When I waved her back and "rechanged" the oil she commented that it was black mighty quick.

I use Seafoam in my gas, but it seems like the Rotella does a good job of scrubbing the engine. The PO of my bike had molasses in the crankcase. 7,000 miles so far, no problems. And my daughter's TRX 300 Honda was well used by twin 12 yr olds. Oil was low when I bought it. And nasty. It's ok now with regular maintanence.

<It's ok now with regular maintanence.>


Please speak proper Billish now whenever you talk to Bill -- Seafoam is a word he understands, "regular maintenance" is another one of them foreign language terms to him.

To Bill, oil should be red, not black.   Remember, he wants you to put Seafoam into both your oil and your gasoline.  

Try asking him "Why?" and it will only confuse and distress him.

Stop trying to confuse him, especially with data or facts.


===========================


For example, don't do this to him -- this would be cruel and unusual punishment for nice ol' Bill.


Fact, if you put a strong detergent package oil into a dirty engine, the new oil quickly picks up the pre-existing crap from every nook and cranny and suspends and holds it (that is if your oil is good enough to do this).  

It will get black in a hurry if it is doing its job properly.

And as Boofer and JOG are trying to tell him (using them funny foreign sounding terms again) if you use a good oil regularly you can KEEP a nice clean engine.   Once the engine is clean the new oil stays clean a nice long time, but eventually it turns black anyway as you make some nasty stuff simply by running your engine.

The red stuff turns black too, if you would actually run it for a few thousand miles.   But that would require you to actually ride your bike that much.

   

One of the stupid things Suzuki did on this bike was put the oil level window behind the exhaust. Another was to make it so you don't get a correct level when the bike is on the side stand (cince there's no center stand).

Oil color is not an indication of age or lubricity of the oil, or a dirty engine...  
The black doesn't come from dirty deposits in the engine, it comes from blowback of carbon past the rings...  
Some brands of oil will absorb this color faster than others, but that doesn't mean they lube any better... the carbons still there, whether it colors the oil or not, and it's fine enough that it doesn't really hurt anything...

Change the oil at regular intervals, (I do it at 2500 to 3000 miles) regardless of color...

If you're concerned,... do a compression check,... but, if your performance is good, and you don't burn much oil, I wouldn't worry...
... or swap to a different brand of oil...  
Some brands may have a different detergent blend that breaks down the carbon and absorbs the color more quickly than others...  
The question is,... is that a good thing or a bad thing... or does it make any difference at all?...
Lubricity tests by oil experts seem to indicate that it doesn't....