Honda Dax

[Argyll]

I wasn't really looking for one of these but a pal of mine bought one 3 years ago as a pit bike but didn't get on with it and wanted it gone. He only managed a grand total of 32 miles, half of that round Spa on a non race day and the rest by his race engineer every 6 months or so to keep it fresh. It's definitely had an oil change but whether that's with running in oil or not I don't know. Anyway, I'm just going to ride it however I like. It's quite a torquey little thing and much quicker than I expected and, of course, much fun. Took me half a day to get used to the semi-auto gearbox but I wouldn't say that I'm a great fan of the heel/toe setup on any bike (yet).

[mottza]

Good engines them. Just change the oil really regularly (800ml). My cub oil was black after 850 miles.

[Argyll]

Yeah, I watched a guy on youtube changing his oil after 300 odd miles and it was already very dark. I thought that he'd got his mileage wrong but that makes sense now. The spec for these is 10w30 although I thought that the Cub was 10w40? Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it doesn't matter what I put in.

[Andym]

All recent Honda's are 10W30, although frankly for the UK either will be fairly central in it's temperature rating. I know it's a number people on websites latch onto, but it's a tiny part of the picture. Honda standardised in order to bulk buy. The biggest issue at dealerships is usually over filling because they just dump a bottle in and don't look at what came out.

The filter fitted C125 intervals are 4000 miles. I see no reason to lower this, although it does in effect become annual.

Colour is not a very scientific indicator IMHO. Use yellow or green trace dye oil rather than red if you want it to stay lighter longer!

Why are these DAX intervals so low? Has oil been analysed (spectroscopy) to show why it's breaking down? At 400 miles, less than 20 hours use, I'd be more concerned than the engine was seeing periods of low pressure during the changes and wear the drain plugs will start to get upset by. I assumed all the angled cylinder 125's were basically the same, the filter less flinger types coming down to 2000 miles.

You'd need to think about proper race technique, prime the oil circuit with a battery drill, fit a dump valve to the drain etc. to avoid the effects of such frequent changes.

Andy

[Argyll]

Well, whatever the science is I changed the Dax oil at 316 miles and, whilst not golden clear, certainly didn't look too bad. I tend to change the oil in my 125's every 1000 miles or so and will do the same with the Dax. No particular reason, just that I like to.