2024 T7 Break-in Oil Analysis by Blackstone

[SteveInNorCal]

Sharing the oil analysis of my break-in oil.  As noted by Blackstone, nothing out of the ordinary.  I'll do another one at the next oil change to make sure everything is going in the right direction.  This engine is very impressive and I'm coming from a 1250GS!

 

 

[BikeBrother]

Well, i see high calcium level. Maybe you put milk in instead of oil...

[SteveInNorCal]

4 minutes ago, BikeBrother said:

Well, i see high calcium level. Maybe you put milk in instead of oil...

That would have been Yamaha adding the milk (this was an analysis of the factory fill)!

 

[T7RAID]

Hey thanks for sharing @SteveInNorCal . It's a bit of a coincidence I actually just got a 24' T7 on the 17th, am coming from a 1200 GSA, and I too just mailed off my break in oil change sample to blackstone. So, I will report back with results when I get them in another thread (and can cross post here for comparison if desired). I will say though that I am deviating from the factory recommendation which will be great since we have your data to compare and prove if my approach is of any benefit. I changed my oil at 301 miles rather than 600, and will do so again at approximately 900-1000 miles. The main reason for doing this really is just to get that super-overkill Motul 7100 stuff in there ASAP, not that I have anything against yamalube, I just have always liked motul, liqi-moly, and amsoil most. I will change it again at around 900-1000 miles and the thought process behind that is because the factory wants us to do it at 600, so if I do it at 300, there is still another 300 miles worth of shearing and shavings from breaking in, so in theory as long as I do not go more than 600 miles from my oil-change period at 300, then the engine will have not ever been subjected to prolonged mileage and time based on the actual factory spec, if that makes sense. In any case, I will post up my data from the 300 mile change, the 900ish change, and will continue to submit samples and collect data on my oil as long as I keep the bike (hopefully forever, I love this thing).

 

Anyways, how have you found the bike thus far? Miss anything about your GS? What do you think the T7 does better than the GS?

[mcbrien]

I was told by my dealer not to change before the 600-mile mark because it has additives for breaking in motor. 

He also said not to leave it in past the 600-mile mark.

[SteveInNorCal]

On 8/27/2024 at 5:45 PM, T7RAID said:

Hey thanks for sharing @SteveInNorCal . It's a bit of a coincidence I actually just got a 24' T7 on the 17th, am coming from a 1200 GSA, and I too just mailed off my break in oil change sample to blackstone. So, I will report back with results when I get them in another thread (and can cross post here for comparison if desired). I will say though that I am deviating from the factory recommendation which will be great since we have your data to compare and prove if my approach is of any benefit. I changed my oil at 301 miles rather than 600, and will do so again at approximately 900-1000 miles. The main reason for doing this really is just to get that super-overkill Motul 7100 stuff in there ASAP, not that I have anything against yamalube, I just have always liked motul, liqi-moly, and amsoil most. I will change it again at around 900-1000 miles and the thought process behind that is because the factory wants us to do it at 600, so if I do it at 300, there is still another 300 miles worth of shearing and shavings from breaking in, so in theory as long as I do not go more than 600 miles from my oil-change period at 300, then the engine will have not ever been subjected to prolonged mileage and time based on the actual factory spec, if that makes sense. In any case, I will post up my data from the 300 mile change, the 900ish change, and will continue to submit samples and collect data on my oil as long as I keep the bike (hopefully forever, I love this thing).

 

Anyways, how have you found the bike thus far? Miss anything about your GS? What do you think the T7 does better than the GS?

I really like the T7 but it's obviously a way different bike than the GS.  I find the tractability of the engine of the T7 quite good, as good as the GS at lower speed, lower rpm riding.  I'm really impressed with that.  I just passed 1000 miles so now I'm able to redline her and she's a lot of fun.  Obviously the weight difference is phenomenal.  My GS is an Adventure and is 593 stock wet.  So about a 150lb saving in the T7.  I did post what I've added to the T7 which amounted to about 20lbs extra.  Plus the 21" front tire - very, very capable bike!

 

[SteveInNorCal]

23 hours ago, mcbrien said:

I was told by my dealer not to change before the 600-mile mark because it has additives for breaking in motor. 

He also said not to leave it in past the 600-mile mark.

The manual says 600 miles, I rode a lot to get it there quick so I could add the aftermarket skid plate & crash bars after doing the oil change.  Tried to keep her under 7K rpm until 1K miles.  Now I'm able to rip on her!

[T7RAID]

On 8/27/2024 at 6:34 PM, mcbrien said:

I was told by my dealer not to change before the 600-mile mark because it has additives for breaking in motor. 

He also said not to leave it in past the 600-mile mark.

This is an interesting claim as I have never heard of this nor seen any published data by Yamaha (or any Japanese manufacturer at that) that reveals what additives this is. Yamalube is actually a pretty high quality product, and they know it, and take pride in it as it is developed by them from what I understand. This is unique in that most other "OEM" oils are just they're label on a bottle of XYZ. Not to say that XYZ, in whatever case, is crap, it's just not actual made by the majority of OEM's. So back to Yamalube, I can't imagine there being any additional additives, as the data sheet on Yamalube is already impressive as is. Additionally, I can't imagine that regardless of whether or not there exists additives in the initial oil from factory or not, that Motul's formula is not matching it or beating it. Probably the later.... But in any case, I only have about 450 miles so far because my usual 100 mile a day commute is temporarily cut down to about 8 miles a day for the next few days and the last week. The bike feels as though nothing is out of the ordinary and I'm sure the Blackstone data will give us some more insight. 

 

That clutch lever friction zone though.... man it is bad lol. Need to order the NiceCNC or CamelADV fix for that.

Edited August 30 by T7RAID

[mcbrien]

When the 600-mile oil comes out it looks cloudy and smells bad which is not normal for yamalube.

[SteveInNorCal]

2 hours ago, T7RAID said:

That clutch lever friction zone though.... man it is bad lol. Need to order the NiceCNC or CamelADV fix for that.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty bad as well and I did do the Camel ADV 1-finger clutch fix.  It's pretty good now.  I also swapped the front brake lines with steel braided, use Motul 660 fluid and the front brakes are great now.  I'm still fiddling with the rear.  I put on the Camel ADV rear brake pedal and while it's better there isn't a whole lot of feedback.  But hey, that's a rear brake.

[TooWheels]

11 hours ago, T7RAID said:

 

 

That clutch lever friction zone though.... man it is bad lol. Need to order the NiceCNC or CamelADV fix for that.

 

I also find the clutch a bit off.

 

If you start the bike cold, and go into gear is there a decent clunk?

 

If you take off in first, pull the clutch in and give it a few blips, does it lurch at all? (Clutch drag)

 

I found increasing the free play helps give a little more control.

 

I have actually purchased the camel, nicecnc and a generic 1 finger clutch setups to do a comparison video.

 

Stay tuned and I'll post it up when I've done the comparison!

[T7RAID]

On 8/30/2024 at 5:36 AM, TooWheels said:

 

I also find the clutch a bit off.

 

If you start the bike cold, and go into gear is there a decent clunk?

 

If you take off in first, pull the clutch in and give it a few blips, does it lurch at all? (Clutch drag)

 

I found increasing the free play helps give a little more control.

 

I have actually purchased the camel, nicecnc and a generic 1 finger clutch setups to do a comparison video.

 

Stay tuned and I'll post it up when I've done the comparison!

Very interested in that video comparison especially between the niceCNC and the camel, as I have yet to buy one yet and I hope the niceCNC fares well. Off topic but I also am waiting to hear from someone with that niceCNC airbox setup.

When I start the bike cold AND when it is op temp, the gear shifting from 1st to 2nd in particular is so, so awful. Exactly halfway through the shift it hits a crazy resistance "wall" feeling is the best way I can describe it, and requires a lot of upward shift motion and strength in the foot to fully seat it into 2nd gear. It is actually very annoying. But, my bike also is only around 450 miles so I'd like to think that this will all be smoothed out by the time its past 1k. And yes the lurch is also very bad when I pull the clutch in in first, and I do notice it in all the gears at various speeds but lowspeed first gear is obviously the most noticeable.

[TooWheels]

5 minutes ago, T7RAID said:

Very interested in that video comparison especially between the niceCNC and the camel, as I have yet to buy one yet and I hope the niceCNC fares well. Off topic but I also am waiting to hear from someone with that niceCNC airbox setup.

When I start the bike cold AND when it is op temp, the gear shifting from 1st to 2nd in particular is so, so awful. Exactly halfway through the shift it hits a crazy resistance "wall" feeling is the best way I can describe it, and requires a lot of upward shift motion and strength in the foot to fully seat it into 2nd gear. It is actually very annoying. But, my bike also is only around 450 miles so I'd like to think that this will all be smoothed out by the time its past 1k. And yes the lurch is also very bad when I pull the clutch in in first, and I do notice it in all the gears at various speeds but lowspeed first gear is obviously the most noticeable.

 

 

I will post up once the video has been done

 

My bike does clunk quite harsly when cold, I have had that wall feeling before and I think the lever wasn't getting pulled enough due to a miss adjustment, so check your freeplay, make sure its set correctly.

 

The workshop manual states about 3mm of play which isn't alot.

 

My bike has ticked over 1400km now, and I think its gotten better, my local dealer said another customer was bringing in their T7 for clutch issues, so I need to chat to them to see how they have gone with that customers bike.

Edited September 2 by TooWheels

[Ede-DE]

1 hour ago, T7RAID said:

When I start the bike cold AND when it is op temp, the gear shifting from 1st to 2nd in particular is so, so awful. Exactly halfway through the shift it hits a crazy resistance "wall" feeling is the best way I can describe it, and requires a lot of upward shift motion and strength in the foot to fully seat it into 2nd gear. It is actually very annoying. But, my bike also is only around 450 miles so I'd like to think that this will all be smoothed out by the time its past 1k. And yes the lurch is also very bad when I pull the clutch in in first, and I do notice it in all the gears at various speeds but lowspeed first gear is obviously the most noticeable.

When you pull the clutch lever the clutch layers will have only very little space in between. The oil that is now in between the layers produce the friction in a way that the gears turn and when you shift the gears come to an sudden stop. CLANG!

To prevent damage to the cogs the oil quality and viscosity is very important.

After some more milage/kms the shifting becomes smoother. Mine has now nearly 7.000 km done and shifting is a lot better than it was before.

[Mapbook]

When i had my own truck i used Comma fleet oils which is recycled oil,750000 kms had a bore inspection done at that point still had the Chris cross honing marks with no vertical scoring.

Most of my owner driver colleagues used recycled oil mainly because of cost IMO brand named oils are no better as you are paying for the name.

Anyway back on two wheels we all have our own preference i use Yamalube as they aint gonna sell you any old crap to put in your engine,

getting on to gear selection from cold clutch adjustment is vital, hold the clutch in select first gear  and start if the bike has been stood overnight or longer you will get 'stiction' so this method forces the plates apart and gets the oil circulating that means you avoid that horrible crunch when you engage first.    

[SteveInNorCal]

The only clutch issue I had was the engagement point stock was really poor, it didn't engage until almost fully out and therefore the feathering zone was really small.  The Camel 1 finger clutch kit seemed to have fixed this.  I also changed the lever to an ASV one but not sure that would really affect the feel.

 

As for the transmission / clunk - I don't really have that but I do let the bike warm up a bit before I ride off.  Plus it's been in the high 90s to 110 here in Sacramento so that may also affect the "cold" performance.  The only complaint I have thus far on the tranny is the downshifting - it doesn't like to be rushed.  If I shift down to fast, say from 5th trying to go to 1st it usually gets caught up at 3rd and I have to take a beat to get it into 2nd then first.  If it's bam, bam, bam it won't shift.  Have about 11oo miles on it now, hopefully it wears in and gets better.  BTW - did this with both the factory fill Yamalube as well as the Motul 7100 in it now (after 600 miles).

[AZJW]

4 hours ago, SteveInNorCal said:

The only clutch issue I had was the engagement point stock was really poor, it didn't engage until almost fully out and therefore the feathering zone was really small.  The Camel 1 finger clutch kit seemed to have fixed this.  I also changed the lever to an ASV one but not sure that would really affect the feel.

 

As for the transmission / clunk - I don't really have that but I do let the bike warm up a bit before I ride off.  Plus it's been in the high 90s to 110 here in Sacramento so that may also affect the "cold" performance.  The only complaint I have thus far on the tranny is the downshifting - it doesn't like to be rushed.  If I shift down to fast, say from 5th trying to go to 1st it usually gets caught up at 3rd and I have to take a beat to get it into 2nd then first.  If it's bam, bam, bam it won't shift.  Have about 11oo miles on it now, hopefully it wears in and gets better.  BTW - did this with both the factory fill Yamalube as well as the Motul 7100 in it now (after 600 miles).

Mine has done the same since new, if you come flying up to a stop and try to row through all the gears (5th to 1st) it'll often protest.  I've been a blip downshifter forever, which completely eliminates this problem, so might give that a try.  As a 10 yr MSF Rider Coach, I'd be remiss not to mention that I use my brakes simultaneously while slowing. That illuminates the brake light to get the attention of the soccer mom who is texting her latest quiche recipie to their BFF, that's behind me.

[Hibobb]

5 hours ago, SteveInNorCal said:

hopefully it wears in and gets better

It don't.