You should change your oil every 2500-3000 miles, and sometimes sooner depending on the kind of riding you’re doing.  If you don’t put on that many miles, you’re probably safe changing the oil only once a year. On the other hand, if you’re doing some heavy riding, especially in warm temps, you might want to change the oil sooner.  Rule of Thumb: It’s not expensive to change the oil (especially if you’re doing it yourself) and since changing the oil is the best thing you can do to help prolong the life of your engine, more often is always a good idea.  Also, if you live in a climate where you put the motorcycle away for the winter, it’s always a good idea to change the oil just before you store it.

To get started with your oil change, get your service manual and locate your drain plug for the engine oil.  The drain plug is going to be located in different areas from model to model.  On Softails, the drain plug is usually at the end of the drain hose attached to the frame or is plugged to the frame. On Sportster models the drain hose is plugged to the frame or the battery box. On very early sportster models the drain plug is at the bottom of the oil tank. The drain plug on early FL models is located at the bottom of the oil tank as well. On later FL models the oil tank was moved and is mounted under the transmission; Dyna models use the same set up. (Be sure to check your service manual to locate the correct drain plug as the oil and transmission plugs are located next to each other on these two models. You don’t want to pull the wrong drain plug.)  If your bike is cool you’ll want to fire it up to warm the oil and get the flow moving more smoothly. Set your drain pan underneath the bike at the draining area, remove the plug, and let the oil drain into the pan. Once the oil starts to pour into the drain pan you can lift the oil tank cap to help get the oil flow pouring faster.  You’ll find in the service manual that your next step is to take the oil filter off and clean the area of old oil residue. On earlier models the oil filter will be a drop in style that goes directly into the oil tank.  If you have a second drain pan, place that underneath your oil filter — if you only have one pan, wait until the oil is done draining from the bike and replace your drain plug — then move your drain pan under the oil filter. We recommend that you replace the drain plug before moving the drain pan so you don’t accidentally re-fill the oil while the drain plug is still out! This can make for a mess. Once you’ve got your pan in place under the filter, use your oil filter wrench to break the filter loose. Once the oil filter is removed, oil is going to pour down the bike. You can buy plastic oil filter draining sleeves or “ramps”.  A piece of cardboard bent into a chute works just as well.  Brake cleaner or carb cleaner both work great for oil clean up. Use one of these to clean old oil from the oil filter housing and wipe the area clean.  When the bike has finished draining, replace the drain plug, making sure to clean the threads on the plug and re-place any o-rings if your drain plug uses them. When replacing the new oil filter take some fresh Spectro oil on your finger and lube the top of your oil filter.   Next, pour a few drops of oil  inside the new filter, then screw the filter back on to the filter housing.  Do not tighten the filter with the wrench —just hand tighten until the filter “snugs down” and then give it another strong twist with your hand.  Refer to your Service manual for your fluid fill amount specs and refill with Spectro Oil using a funnel in the oil tank.

Synthetic Vs. Standard
A topic that seems to be on everyone’s mind these days is what type of oil to use —synthetic or standard, or blend. What’s the difference? What’s better? Synthetic oils are better in almost every aspect, which is why they come at a higher price tag. True Group IV synthetics are made from molecules build from the ground up to work better and last longer. Synthetics typically have lower volatility, meaning they offer more resistance to burning off and lower pour points, resulting in better low-temperature lubrication characteristics.  Additionally, synthetic oils are more resistant to oxidation, so they last longer than a petroleum-based product.  Synthetic oils also will keep engines running cleaner and have less deposit build-up.  Naturally, most people would like to have the advantages of synthetic oil, but don’t like the price tag.  The answer for them is semi-synthetic aka synthetic blend oils.  Semi-synthetic oil provides some of the durability advantages of fully-synthetic oil, but at a price closer to petroleum oil.  Semi-synthetics are a compromise, but for many, a good choice. Finally, there’s petroleum or mineral lubricants, which, with more frequent change intervals, can provide you with great reliability and fine lubricity over most operating ranges.

But let’s get some basics down to help you decide… hey, it’s your bike and you’re going to have to decide what to feed it, just like you do your own body. Do you want to eat fast food junk or something a little healthier?  First, whether you use synthetic, semi-synthetic, or standard oil, make sure you’re using motorcycle oil, not automotive. Cars and motorcycles have different requirements, and require different performance characteristics from their oils. Example: motorcycle oils have zinc additive packages, whereas automotive oil have greatly reduced additives because it is believed these additives damage the catalytic converters in automobiles. Automobile oils are designed to meet fuel economy standards and they are limited as to what type of additives they can contain.  Motorcycle oils are not faced with these limitations, so they are designed solely to deliver performance.  Most importantly, motorcycles typically utilize wet-clutch systems where as autos do not.  A wet-clutch is a clutch that is bathed and cooled in the motor or transmission oil.  Motorcycle oil has to be able to provide superior lubrication to transmission and engine components while also offering traction to the wet clutch to prevent slippage.  This is a unique challenge met by m/c oils that automobile oils aren’t designed to handle.  This is why motorcycle oil is more expensive then automotive oil — the extra ingredients are critical to performance.

The difference between synthetic and standard motorcycle oil is something you’ll want to research for yourself. One thing we do want to stress is that some oil manufacturers are recommending you can use synthetic oil in both the engine and transmission. We do not recommend this and will always advise people to use transmission oil in the transmission. Spectro formulates oils that are specifically for use in the transmission.  These oils are treated with additives that are designed to handle the shearing forces of gears and the extreme pressures found on the gear teeth.  A bit of performance can be gained by using these oils and the transmission fluids definitely prolong the life of the motorcycle by reducing transmission wear.  You need to decide what type of oil you want to use and stick with that. It’s your bike - so do your homework and decide which lubricant will be best for you.   It’s important to re-fill your oil according to the spec’s in your service manual; too much oil is just as bad as too little oil.  

The oil system.
The V- Twin engine  uses a force-feed or pressure type oil pump set up. Your oil pump works in this way; gravity moves the oil from the oil tank to the pump inlet.  The oil pump creates pressure-forcing oil into the engine, lubricating the lower end, connecting rod, bearings, rocker arm bushings, valve stems, push rods, and tappets. The cylinder walls, pistons and timing gears are lubed by oil spray thrown off connecting rods and the crankshaft. They are also lubed by oil draining from the rocker boxes through an internal drain passage in each cylinder and tappet guide. The scavenging portion of the pump removes excess oil from the engine, passing through the filter and returning to the tank.