oil brands
 

Hi all, it's time to service the bikes now so wondered if anyone can recomend a particular oil brand? semi synthetic or fully synthetic?
Has anyone used a good car oil in a motorcycle engine?

Cheers,
Martin

go for semi synthetic, any known brand name will be fine, its better to change the oil regularly (3000 miles is ideal) than to put good oil in and leave it till its a thick sludge, i have used rock oil and motul, both were more than adequet

ps. dont use car oil in a bike, car oil has friction modifiers which will screw around with your clutch as it runs in the oil, probably cause it to slip

Semi-synthetic is fine, but the secret is to change your oil often rather than standard service intervals. So a cheaper oil (Halfords seems fine) will do if it gets changed every 2-3k rather than a wallet-stinging brand that only gets replaced every 4-5k.

Car oil? Providing it's semi-synth it won't be a great problem, contrary to what is often believed. I ran my SV on car oil for 6k early in it's life :shock: and it was absolutely fine. In fact before I went out on it last night I noticed the oil level was particularly low and I'd run out of bike oil so I bunged 250ml of semi-synth car oil in and it's fine - I'll change it in the week (because it needs it) but it's not the bugbear that seems to be common belief. Though without a doubt bike oil is the ideal lubricant.


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Dont use Synthetic if you have been running Semi Synththetic, I was told that it doesnt do them any good. It certainly doesn't with Diesels.

Im not sure about using car oil either, I have either used Motul or Castrol GPS which are recommended by Suzuki

oil is oil as long as it meets the minimum specs in the owners manual and is correct viscosity for your climate

Oils are not just oils! They are complex mixes of products to meet particular demands. Cars oils tend to contain friction inhibitors which can play havoc with wet clutches, also car oils are not designed to cope with the shearing forces of gearbox gears and can breakdown quicker.(Cars generally have seperate gearboxes to the engine.) The deal that Hein Gericke shops have on for 5l of Motul semi-synthetic and a pattern air and oil filter for £24.95 is hard to beat.

http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.htm

True. But it costs me ten quid in fuel and two hours of time to get there and back :lol: .


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Yeah... we've been here before haven't we! :lol:

The oil companies would have us believe that motorcycle oil is specially formulated for our high-performance machines etc etc. However independent tests have shown it to have no bearing at all on the longevity of the product when in use.

In fact, I recall that the oil that kept its viscosity the most, while most motorcycle oils were losing theirs by 800 miles, was the cheap and cheerful, Mobil1! :lol:

Mobil1 is supposed to be the best, a good search on the net will come up with loads of sites with independent tests, even showing how their 15W-50 synthetic oils outperform 10W-40 oils at low temperatures and that's not supposed to happen. Their car and bike oils are also the same price now but you might find it difficult to get hold of the bike stuff.

Where is MIGTS very own oil technician when you need him? :P

KEITH, you there?

There is a lot of difference between cheap oil and expensive oils, not just marketing hype. I use to deliver oils and additives throughout Europe. It all depends on alfaolefines, olefines and polyolefines.

Castrol in Louth spend an absolute fortune on testing racing engines.