oil usage on RT

[R Doug]

According to my dealer, the oil consumption is normal.  I do, however, hope that it get better with time.  I now have the first 800 miles on my bike and the check oil warning light came on 100 miles ago.  The oil is now at the bottom of the sight glass.  

[Silverbird]

Hi Doug, I've noticed how excited you are about your new RT, congrats!!

I didn't come across how many miles you have on yours, and how much the oil showing at the bottom of the sight glass translates to. I would also assume you are breaking it in hard, seating those rings?

[R Doug]

She is new and I am trying to the break-in properly.  After 800 miles, it used about 4 ounces as the oil was at the bottom of the sight glass.  

While I have some "slabby" bits of roads between here and the mountains, I'm keeping it between 4 and 6k RPM and making sure it gets a lot of back pressure.  I ran the entire length of the section of US 421 called the "Snake" and didn't hardly use my brakes once.  I just let the engine braking do its thing all while not allowing revs to go below 4k.  

[roadstar]

How common is this?  Everytime I start getting excited about buying one of these I come across a massive oil consumption thread.  Damn you internet!!!!

After talking to people , it has alot to do with , hard cylinder walls & hard rings , make`s it hard to break in. So i`m hoping after about 20,000mi it`ll stop, & of course i`ll still ride it hard  

[Silverbird]

Seems like a lot of people don't do a lot of heavy engine breaking.  Especially since it's pretty common to break an engine in nice and easy.  I bet most of that oil slips by when not on the throttle

[Rosarita]

Something is wrong. My 2010 used about half a quart at 5 and 10k, and stopped using any after that mileage

[R Doug]

I now have 2,000 miles on mine and it's nearly used an entire quart.  As for break-in, I have been trying to stick to mountain roads and keep the bike between 4 and 6K RPM at all times.  Instead of braking for corners, I am rolling off throttle and placing as much backpressure on the motor as I can.  I am a little behind on where I should have been on the revs by now.  According to the manual, I should have taken it up to the rev limiter by 1K miles.  I just did that on Sunday a few times (slowly) while the bike was between 1.5K and 2K miles.

From everything I've read, we're most likely losing oil in the airbox (via the crankcase).  Since we don't have a PCV valve and just a hose direct from the crankcase to the airbox, the heated oil sloshes around and vaporizes.  The mist is carried into the airbox where it condenses and coats the inside of the airbox, sometimes enough to puddle a little.  So, I'll bet the oil we're losing is through the airbox and burned as it goes through the combustion cycle.

[Carbonero]

I heard that BMW's will use oil until around 12,000 miles,

I made my living building engines.

There is absolutely... ABSOLUTELY... no basis for that being acceptable, normal or tolerable.

None.

[ConPilot1]

Personally I find it hard to believe that one of the oldest, and most common, engine designs that has had nearly a century of refinement and development behind it
burns oil at those kind of rates.

I get all "I want one someday" when discussions break out about how nice the RT's are and how well they handle. And then I hear stuff like this.

Are all the 1200 class Boxer motors in the same boat, the GS's and the R1200R and such?? How about the K-bikes? If it's hard cylinder walls and rings, those bikes
should be exhibiting the same kind of behavior, as I'd assume BMW would use similar alloys in the engines and rings of the K series bikes as well as the Boxers?