A few months ago I took a a 600 mile trip to D.C. and doing highway speeds the whole way, at this time, I had no idea of the sidestand oil level check (which I use now). So before the trip, I decided to Change my oil, rotella triple protection. Did the change filled up to the top line at verticle. Rode down to a buddies house and decided to check it. Now it's way above the top line with the bike verticle, but there's still a bubble of air at the top of the window. At the time, I thought this was too much, so I drained a bit out so that the oil was 2/3 up between the marks. Rode the whole trip, kept an eye on the level and it stayed put at the same level.

My concern is that I always checked the oil hot, and oil has a thermal expansion. Could I really have been below the bottom line of I let the Bike cool off? Could I have put excessive wear on my engine?

How low does the oil level have to get to get rod knock, or ya know, kaboom?

Dang. I've just been using a 2 by 4 underneath the sidestand and I just about get to the bottom line. Enough for me, and I check it frequently anyways.

Redryder652 wrote on 08/21/16 at 21:10:58:



I couldn't do that.. I wonder how much the oil does for cooling.

I thought a 2/4 had it closer to vertical,, if you are full, you're full.. I just grab the bar, pull it up, look at the window.