When JASO came out it was paired with SL oils and the pair of specs carried good clutch function and 1,100 to 1,250 PPM of ZDDP on the bike oils being sold back at that point in time.   So, back then JASO MA was a "desirable rating" to us.

SN and MA2 (the original MA2)  came out and and ZDDP dropped to 800 to no more than 1,000 PPM.   And the rules started to get funny as they enforced MAXIMUM ZDDP levels but enforced no mininum specs at all -- so we stared seeing 800 PPM oils listed as "motorcycle oils".

And, JASO then came out with all the other MA ratings and all their other funny rules, so we simply started listing the oils with enough ZDDP and good clutch function in the Tech Section.

Greg, you can be just as confused about JASO as you want to be, nobody is going to stop you since you seem to like it.    And JASO is certainly going to keep you busy for a while since they change it up each year.

For everybody else,    http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1344471565

Depends,, If ya had enough miles on that "new" oil to get some unburned stuff in it, it could have sat there & become a bit acidic..Or,, thats what Ive heard,, nows a good time for someone to say Yea, thats right or No,, thats just silly.,.

ahh yes the yearly oil war any north koreans here?
AMSOIL  nuff said

Thanks OF ,sounds like good advice.

Normal combustion byproducts of burning gasoline in air result in carbon dioxide and water, along with assorted oxides of nitrogen (there are about five of them generically called NOx) and sulphur from impurities in gasoline. Carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid, the stuff that makes carbonated drinks fizzy. Sulphur oxides (two of them) react with water to form sulphuric and sulphurous acids. NOx reacts with water to form nitrous and nitric acids. All these find their way into the crankcase through blowby, although most of them keep right on going out the breather. The carbonic acid goes away when the oil temperature gets high enough to evaporate the water away. Motor oils (not necessarily racing oils, since it is expected that racing oils will be changed after every race) have basic compounds added which neutralize the acids. The basic compounds are reported as TBN, Total Base Number, in analyses of oil. The TBN will drop as oil is used for longer, and more fuel is burned. Any acid not neutralized can cause corrosion of metal parts in the engine, and that is the reason for the advice to change oil before long-term storage.

Personally, I believe that if the engine was run long enough to bring it up to normal operating temperature immediately before storage, and if the oil isn't already approaching a change interval, I'd just leave the old oil in there. I certainly see no reason to change the oil at the start of the season if I had already done so when I put the machine into storage.

So, run it hard right before you put it up and run it hard again on your first spring rides and remember to change your T6 once a year to be on the chickenish safe side and you can quit worrying about your oil.

Remember, that T6 oil was extensively tested to be good for 20,000 - 30,000 miles of HARD USE in a big road diesel, it isn't going to crap out on you in 3,000 - 5,000 miles of yearly use in our Savage no matter what you do to it.

And trust me, I do worse to it than you do, by a factor of 10 at least every time I go to the mountains.

That comparison/analysis may not seem valuable to some, but it makes sense to me.,I know some women who simply wouldnt get that,

Using Valvoline 4 stroke dino oil for around $3 per quart, or Suzuki dino, whatever is cheapest on the shelf.

87 Savage around 30K.

Still Runs fine