As for my oil woes my car burns it off religously, but I also do a lot of hard driving sitting in Traffic here on the road from hell Belt P-way, and I do a lot driving back and forth to South Jersey when I go home. Sometimes after pushing real hard on a long drive say 300 miles or so I'll come up almost a quart low, but thats not the norm, I add pretty much about half to 1 quart every 3 or 4 fill ups so for me with this motor that is acceptable.
The one thing that I did do different this time which I'm sure others on here have done was to add a full quart of Lucas Oil Stab. I changed it last week and so far I've noticed that the engine doesn't knock as much, seems to feel a little more stronger and the burn is, considering the oil levels remained the same.
All in All though I still ride everywhere with a 5 quart jug of Castrol from Wal-mart, $17.99 in the back of the VX with a rag just in case.