Significant Metal on Drain Plugs

Hi all,

i have a 07 SD which now has 16,000km. i bought it with 9500km on it and changed the oil at around 11,000km. no metals to be seen.
was changing the oil today and noticed alot of metal shavings on the oil tank drain bolt, and on the engine drain bolt. enough to make me worried anyway.
bike had done 5,000km since previous oil change, only street useage (but hard riding, went through 4 sets of rubber to 1 oil change ) and using motorex crosspower 10w/50 oil (as per the oil change previously). bike had used approx 400mL of oil over the 5,000km. i am worried about the oil usage.
both the screens were perfectly clean, i washed the oil filter out and it wasnt too bad and there was no significant metals in the oil to be seen. it was all obviously magnetic

Stupid me forgot to take photos of the drain plugs but the drain plugs in this photo look similar to what i had built up. similar size metal bits and maybe even a touch more on my plugs

i have now filled the bike back up with shell ax7 15w/50 and will run it for 1000km and change the oil again to look for metal. half will be hard riding in the hills and half will be highway cruising to motogp next weekend.

how much metal do these bikes move around? i thought they were normally fairly clean. bike seems to be running fine otherwise, no strange noises, making good HP. starts easy as.

not sure where to start, i think changing the oil after a good run will give me a good indication whats going on but what goes wrong with these things? i might check the valves in 1000km when i drop the oil again.

help??

If screens and filter are clean I would not worry. However you could change the oil a bit more often, let say - 1 set of tyres = 1 oil change. Or 2 set of tyres = 1 oil change. But not 4 set of tyres per change However you use it on the street its technically a "race use" and KTM suggest an oil change after each race weekend. About oil consumption some other member might add an opinion, but it varies from bike to bike and your consumption should be in factory tolerance.

I do not understand how it is possible to wear off 4 set of tyres in 5000km, what exactly your tyres and what you are doing with your bike ?

Were all both screens looking like this as well? I still get a few bits on my plugs after nearly 50k miles. Especially if I have been raping her at the track and getting the odd neutral and the crunching back into gear that can bring. Never seen screens like that though and would be a tad concerned.

that picture is not my bike, but thats the amount of metal on the drain plugs i had.

there was nothing on the screens at all so i shouldnt be too worried this time.

you're right i should have changed the oil more frequently and will do from now, about every 2,500km might do it.

tyres were 1 set of roadsmarts (came on the bike, wrong tyre for me so they just fell to bits), 1 set power pure (overheated the rear after a fast street ride then they fell apart), 1 set Diablo Rosso Corsa (were ok, moved around too much for me though) and i'm due to change my current tyres dunlop sportsmart after this weekend it seems.

just the last 2 rides or so i had been getting more false neutrals than i had before, really yuck sounding.

Bought my 07 last November with 1870 km's on it. Previous owner's papers said oil had been changed at 988 km's. I now have 4400 kms on her and changed the oil last weekend in anticipation of putting her away for the season (snow forcast this weekend). I has similar amounts of shavings on my plugs, and was somewhat alarmed as well. Screens were clean though. Probably used about 500 ml of oil during my riding, but was topping up with Castrol 10W60 I had on hand for my prior car (RIP BMW M5). I hope the oil consumption is better next year with the motorex in there...