Oil

[rpwoodman]

I thought I'd top up my oil, so went to a local Halfords - all the bike shops around here seem to be closed on Sundays.
Anyway, they had quite a good choice, tho mainly Halfords own brand, or Castrol. However, none of the Castrol oils said they were semi-synthetic - just "Synthetic technology" on the side (it was Magnatec oil). I was a little surprised by that. I guess I'll go to a bike shop on Monday, but I kind of expected Halfords to stock what I wanted.

Anyone else find this surprising?

Oh, I suppose it could be that they've just sold out with the good weather, people are getting their bikes back onto the roads for the summer?

[rezaf]

i agree with you. halfords seem to mainly cater for car owners. theres only a small section of bits for bikes at the dartford one i go to.

[Blue Flame]

The Castrol oil is in the motorbike specific part of the store. "Castrol GPS 4 stroke Motorcyle Oil" . Can't miss it cos the label says "Motorcycle" :wink:

[rpwoodman]

The Castrol oil is in the motorbike specific part of the store. "Castrol GPS 4 stroke Motorcyle Oil" . Can't miss it cos the label says "Motorcycle" :wink:

:-)

Thanks (and feel free to laugh at me to yourself) but does that mean it's semi-synthetic?

[Warren]

just get the halfords own brand 10-40w semi synth. its in the car section.

the castrol stuff is way overpriced in my opinion 35 quid for 5L

[Blue Flame]

just get the halfords own brand 10-40w semi synth. its in the car section.

the castrol stuff is way overpriced in my opinion 35 quid for 5L

It was £25.99 for 5L yesterday at Halfords :?

[Warren]

just get the halfords own brand 10-40w semi synth. its in the car section.

the castrol stuff is way overpriced in my opinion 35 quid for 5L

It was £25.99 for 5L yesterday at Halfords :?

damn.

18.99 for the own brand.

[chazzyb]

I use a Vauxhall-branded 10W-40 semi-synth. £10-50 for 5 litres.

[northwind]

GPS is semi-synth. Read the small print ;) It's also a pretty colour.

[wheelnut]

Still not convinced about using car oil in a bike, although I know a man who will know :P

Keith come on down!

[red5]

I use castrol GPS in mine but have to say, everytime I go into Halfords they haven't got any on the shelf, the one time they did they only had it in 1ltr bottles so I ended up paying slightly more than buying a 4 litre bottle of it.

Really annoying. :x

[Blue Flame]

Still not convinced about using car oil in a bike

Did a trawl and found this. Don't know if its fact or not but it casts enough doubt in my head to still make me want to buy an oil that is specifically for m/bike.

"Motorcycle oils and passenger car oils are very similar, with the exception of a couple of areas that are key to motorcycle operation. The first area concerns common sumps, or the use of motor oil, to lubricate and cool the transmission. As you know, in a passenger car the transmission is lubricated by an ATF fluid, which has frictional properties required for transmission operation. In a motorcycle, where the transmission may be lubricated by the engine oil, an engine oil that does not have the same level of friction modification (for fuel economy) of a typical passenger car engine oil will provide better transmission performance in terms of transmission lock-up and slippage. So motorcycle engine oil does not contain the friction modifiers of a passenger car engine oil. The second area of concern for motorcycle engine oils is that they tend to shear (breakdown viscosity) more quickly than a typical passenger car."

[caz650s]

The Castrol oil is in the motorbike specific part of the store. "Castrol GPS 4 stroke Motorcyle Oil" . Can't miss it cos the label says "Motorcycle" :wink:
The GPS motorcycle specific oil is the right oil for a Bike as normal car oil doesn't do a 'WET CLUTCH' any favours,thats proberbly why so many people complain of clutch drag !! its not worth saving a few quid to risk damaging your motor!

[Dreadhead]

yes i was wanting to do the a oil change at the weekend but i dont know which oil to put in it can the 2001 sv650 take fully synthetic or semi and is 10w 40 the best grade to stick with

[markmoto]

Dont do it car oil in bikes just isnt good bike oils have many different additives to allow it to survive in a harsh enviroment car oils just wont stand upto the bike gearbox and will do your wet clutch no favours. For anyone thinking about scimping on oil think about this.

If you had a super model girlfriend would you feed her chips??

marc

[Sid Squid]

Did a trawl and found this:

...As you know, in a passenger car the transmission is lubricated by an ATF fluid, which has frictional properties required for transmission operation.Specifically that's referring to cars with auto 'boxes, (ATF = automatic tramsmission fluid), was it a Yank site? a large percentage of their cars are auto. Over here our cars being mostly manual they use an EP oil in the 'box.

Anyway it may well be valid advice all the same, modern oils are very good but all the same I'd still use a bike specific semi-synth.

If you had a super model girlfriend would you feed her chips??For a while yes, I probably would - most of them are too skinny.

[northwind]

If this were SV Rider everyone would be telling you to use diesel oil.

[rpwoodman]

I went back into the one in Newbury because I was passing, and they'd got some more stock in, incl GTS, so I bought some of that. I'm sure the Halfords own brand would have been fine, but for an extra £6, I tought I'd go for it. 5L will last me a long time, so I don't feel too riped off. Of course, it could be that exactly the same product is in the Halfords containers... :-)

Thanks for the advice

[rpwoodman]

Anyone got any idea why the oil is red? Just curious.

[northwind]

Someone told me once that Castrol colour their oils according to grade and viscosity. This might be rubbish though.

[lukemillar]

Someone told me once that Castrol colour their oils according to grade and viscosity. This might be rubbish though.

I like the idea of this - I recently changed mine with some Shell oil which is a dark honey colour. When you look at it in the sight glass, it looks almost black. I find this a little disconcerting...

[Warren]

Someone told me once that Castrol colour their oils according to grade and viscosity. This might be rubbish though.

I like the idea of this - I recently changed mine with some Shell oil which is a dark honey colour. When you look at it in the sight glass, it looks almost black. I find this a little disconcerting...

most oils are a dark honey colour when there new, its only once there used, they go black.

[lukemillar]

Someone told me once that Castrol colour their oils according to grade and viscosity. This might be rubbish though.

I like the idea of this - I recently changed mine with some Shell oil which is a dark honey colour. When you look at it in the sight glass, it looks almost black. I find this a little disconcerting...

most oils are a dark honey colour when there new, its only once there used, they go black.

What, after you just put it in!? I was standing in the shade but still. Red sounds good!

[jambo]

I put Castrol GPS in the Kwak for it's 3rd service IIRC, it was very pretty, but I'm not convinced it'll be any better long term than the Motul stuff I usually use...

That said if you go to castrol's website there are some scary articles written by MCN about them running CBR motors with different oils for 20,000 mile equivalents without stopping or a change of fluids running on a machine that constantly has them doing simulated laps of Brands Hatch with Jerremy Mcwilliams riding... Gotta love datalogging :lol:

Not sure it's relevant to my commute but a good read :twisted:

[RandyO]

OIL is OIL, don't worry

as long as it meet the viscosity requirements for your climate, and grade requirements, SG or better you are ok

even adding non spec energy saving car oil is better than being low


change it per recommended schedule every 3500-4000 miles, no more, no less, keep it topped off, don't do extended wheelies and your engine will keep you happy for thousands and thousands of miles. at least that's the way its been for me, so far for 130,000 miles

[andyaikido]

The 2-stroke oil for my old Aprilia was a lovely green colour, mmm...
You can get strawberry-scented 2-stroke oil too, seriously.

[jonboy]

even adding non spec energy saving car oil is better than being low

Perfectly true. I ran my SV on semi-synth car oil for 5000 miles (two changes) and it was fine, clutch didn't slip either.

change it per recommended schedule every 3500-4000 miles, no more, no less

I would have to say that changing your oil more often (every 2500 - 3000 miles) would do it the world of good, so using cheap oil (like Halfords' own) is not going to be a big deal if it gets changed very frequently.

I think it's also worth flushing out the engine occasionally, not bothering with any special flushing oil, but using two litres of cheap semi-synth, running the bike for a couple of minutes, and then draining it off and refilling with yet more fresh. This way you really do have fresh oil rather than an amalgam of old and new which is what happens normally.


.

[RandyO]

[quote="jonboy
I would have to say that changing your oil more often (every 2500 - 3000 miles) would do it the world of good, so using cheap oil (like Halfords' own) is not going to be a big deal if it gets changed very frequently.

I think it's also worth flushing out the engine occasionally, not bothering with any special flushing oil, but using two litres of cheap semi-synth, running the bike for a couple of minutes, and then draining it off and refilling with yet more fresh. This way you really do have fresh oil rather than an amalgam of old and new which is what happens normally.


.[/quote]


changing the oil more frequently won't hurt, unless you do something stupid like cross thread your drainplug, or accidently contaminate the oil (every additional time you work on a bike you increase the odds)

but it has no benefit, modern oils can easily retain their lubrication and cleansing properties for the recommended interval, with probably a double or even tripple safety margin

I might change my opinion if my SV blows up and I see somebody with more than 130,000 on their original engine

[Warthog]

After reading a similar thread on here a few months back, the concensus was that it didn't really matter that much, so I bought some cheap 10W-40 from Halfords and I don't seem to be having any problems...