Possibly getting paranoid here but I'm sure I read somewhere that you have to be careful when laying up Suzuki TL motors because old oil can 'corrode' the big end shells. Especially when using synth/semi-synth as they contain all sorts of additives - this is the for the soon to be laid up V-Raptor Here's a quote from one of the TL forums "ideally change the oil and run the engine up to temperature before a winter lay up so contaminated oil isn't sat on the shells for 6 months etc" Has anyone heard of such a thing?
Not sure why the big end shells Suzuki buy in would be any more prone to corrosion than those bought in by any other motorcycle manufacturer. Changing oil before laying up an engine for a long period of time, used to be encouraged as good practice, a good few years ago because you didn’t know if the used oil contained any nasties. My TL R was never laid up in the time I owned it (late ‘90s) but I don’t remember anything being said by the dealer. Andy
Aha! just found the magazine article on the TL S/R bikes and it was the 'expert view' - "The acids in dirty oil in a bike left over winter, say, will attack the big end shells and they will spin on the crank. You can't get oversize shells so the cranks can't be reground and I wouldn't recommend metal spraying. The only option is a good used crankshaft. So always change the oil before storing a bike" From what little I ferreted out on the web it seemed the early bikes had oil issues to the big ends which are compounded if you happened to be a wheelie monster. So perhaps it's just paranoia with some semblance of reason....
In magazine articles, an “expert view” is reasonably likely to actually be one enthusiast’s baseless opinion turned into journalistic “factoid” by a tripewriter monkey.
Nicely put - and I knew I'd get sensible answers from this forum. The MOT runs out in mid July when he'll be laid up for it's long awaited refurb. 60K commuting miles takes a lot out of a bike. And yes, the TL engine is a gem and clutch push rod seals apart has been faultless. It's slightly (bhp) detuned in the V-Raptor but still retains that big fat torque that makes for real easy speed.
