I was reading an interesting article on the myths of motorcycle oils. Made me re-think my next oil purchase.

http://www.ducatimeccanica.com/oil.html

 

That must be an old article. I haven't seen oil prices that low in awhile. Oil threads are taboo on most forums. Bobistheoilguy.com is a great resource for oil info. Do your research, come to a conclusion, and go with it. Some will agree and some will disagree with any oil you pick. I use Rotella T 15W-40 dino diesel oil in my aircooled VW and KLX. I change both at 1000 miles.

From the Wiki:

Motorcycle usage

Though marketed as an engine oil for diesel trucks, Rotella oil has found popularity with motorcyclists as well. The lack of "friction modifiers" in Rotella means they do not interfere with wet clutch operations. (This is called a "shared sump" design, which is unlike automobiles which maintain separate oil reservoirs - one for the engine and one for the transmission). Used oil analysis (UOA) reports on BobIsTheOilGuy.com have shown wear metals levels comparable to oils marketed as motorcycle-specific.
JASO-MA

JASO is an acronym that stands for "The Japanese Automotive Standards Organization." Among other things, they set standards for oil to be used in motorcycles.

Shell Rotella T 15W-40 conventional oil now lists on its packaging JASO MA as one of the specifications it meets, as does the Rotella website product page:

Note that the 10W-30 conventional oil does not list JASO-MA.

The newer fully synthetic T6 5W-40 oil also lists JASO-MA compliance on its packaging and on the Rotella website.

$12.97 a gallon at Wally
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Shell-Rote...1-Gal/14958327

 

+1 one the above, but i change mine every 3-4k or so. if you were racing the bike it might be a good idea to change the oil often, but "recreational" oil changes are just money down the drain IMO.

 

One interesting thing in that article is the testing interval - 800 and 1500 miles. How many of us would think any motor oil would be bad by 1500 miles. How about 3000 and 7000 mile tests. Make it real world usage to see if, as I feel, it is a waste to change oil befor 3000 miles. I have no doubt you could run non-detergent straight weight oil from 1960 for 1500 miles without much problem, heck, you might be able to get 1500 from bacon grease - and smell goood too. But how about the current stuff for say 10,000 miles? Seems Mobil used to claim 15,000 miles from their synthetic, what about now? What will it do? I'm not changing oil at 1500 miles, how about you? When they actually test the stuff for a realistic amount of miles I might buy into running Pep Boys oil for a buck a quart. Until then I'm going to run a JASO MA oil, be it the petroleum based Honda oil I buy by the gallon (forget the price, I buy it because of convenience and wanting a dealership there when I want one) or maybe Rotella since it does meet JASO MA.

There is a reason the petrochemical engineers put the additives in there to meet JASO MA, a doctor of physics is not a petrochemical engineer any more than a doctor of biology is. They may know lab research techniques, but they may not know what the petrochemical engineer does.

When they prove a basic car oil will run 5000 miles on par with the JASO MA oil I would consider doing the lower priced oil. Until then I'm not biting on the bait. 1500 miles is half of what I will run at a minimum.

Based on what they use as standards, I'd conclude that a 1953 Harley engine is as good as the newest VTwin, because both can run say 20,000 miles without needing rebuilds. A cheap Walmart rainsuit is as good as say a Bellstaff rainsuit because both will work at 30 mph for while riding in the rain. A Kenda touring tire is as good as a Dunlop Tour Elite because both are black and round and go for 3000 miles.

Lab = 800 miles and 1500 miles
Reality = at least 2500 miles and should reach 7000-10,000 miles to try to see what breakdown exists at some realistic mileage.

Until MCN does a real test I will follow JASO MA standards rather than MCN and Physics PhD standards. I know which are closest to my preferences.

 

klx678, I agree. One gallon of the honda stuff at the dealership will change the oil in both of our bikes with a little bit left over. I only do it once a year - we don't ride in the winter, and only put about 2000 miles on the bike in a season. Not worth the risk to save a couple of bucks once a year IMHO...

 

I have never heard of a engine failure from using any name brand oil. I would love to have some statistics.

 

The Rotella has a higher percentage of zinc, and IS a good oil.
Great article. Thx, for the read. I enjoy reading articles about oils and the quest for the holy grail. I know on the lubrication forum of LinkedIn, the reps from the big names and specialty-name companies get VERY (pathetically) abusive with each other. IMHO, it's not only about the oil; it's also about the bigger picture of your routine maintenance approach. Regular changes with brand name lube, filters, and keeping your bike in good mechanical spec goes a long way to "compensate" for slight percentage variations between additive packages of brand name lubes.
I've used a brand name synthetic for roughly 30 years, and add a bit of ZDDP (especially because all my stuff is old) to help with the friction points. Yeah; maybe it's "snake oil" but it has served me well. FWIW.
Good read; thanks, again.

 

I thought it was a very informative article for the layman like myself. I found it interesting that there was no significant difference between a motorcycle synthetic verses a auto synthetic. I was also surprised to see how quickly the viscosity degrades. A 17% decrease in only 1,500 miles (Mobile 1) was remarkable. I thought the synthetics would hold up better.

I wanted to get an automotive synthetic 10W-40 but they all said for higher mileage cars. That kinda concerned me so I bought the Mobile 1 motorcycle synthetic since it was also 10W-40. I'd like to know if there is any difference between a "regular" synthetic and one market towards high mileage cars? It was weird, I couldn't find one synthetic 10W-40 that didn't say for high mileage cars.

For those who have switched over to a synthetic, have you noticed a difference in gas mileage?

 

I ran synthetic in my Ninja and Jeep for a year or two almost a decade ago after hearing all the hype about how great it was. Tried everything from the wal-mart brand syn to the botiuqe $15 a quart stuff.

The only difference i noticed was that my wallet was much lighter.

 

I have over 40,000 KM'S ,only been using dino oil. Some cheap stuff from Canadian Tire...it is JASO approved tho. I plan on continuing this. I have allowed my KLX to be the test guinea pig of cheap oil...so far so good. Starts and runs just like the day she was bought. Oil is changed every 3000 to 5000 kms.