Update on oil change

Good morning
I asked the question on the forum the other day about which oil to use on my 2001 sv 650. I chose to go with the Castrol Superbike R4 oil.
I changed the oil last evening along with the filter and rode it in the 25 mile commute to work this morning.
Well it is the difference between night and day. It even feels better and quieter than when I bought it at 4000 miles. Clunky gearshift gone, funny little engine noises gone.
So if you are considering an engine oil change I would rec Castrol R4 fully synthetic. It has just made my ride a lot smoother.
Simon

[mattSV]

Originally Posted by simon1966

Good morning
I asked the question on the forum the other day about which oil to use on my 2001 sv 650. I chose to go with the Castrol Superbike R4 oil.
I changed the oil last evening along with the filter and rode it in the 25 mile commute to work this morning.
Well it is the difference between night and day. It even feels better and quieter than when I bought it at 4000 miles. Clunky gearshift gone, funny little engine noises gone.
So if you are considering an engine oil change I would rec Castrol R4 fully synthetic. It has just made my ride a lot smoother.
Simon

IMHO, any oil change will often make the bike feel/sound better. Personally, I cannot justify the expense of fully synth when semi synth is more than 'adequate'.

However, if you can afford it, and it makes your riding a lot smoother then why not

Originally Posted by mattSV

IMHO, any oil change will often make the bike feel/sound better. Personally, I cannot justify the expense of fully synth when semi synth is more than 'adequate'.

However, if you can afford it, and it makes your riding a lot smoother then why not

It's also worth bear in mind that some people have reported clutch slip when running fully synthetic in SVs.

Just read the comment about "Cant Justify" the cost of fully synthetic. My opinion, £30 is money well spent. Considering I did it myself and with the filter it cost £40 whereas if I had taken it to a dealer what would I have paid then?
Simon

[Biker Biggles]

I don't use fully synth oil but there are several people on here that do and there seem to be no clutch slip problems on the SV.Maybe the engine is not powerful enough to overcome the clutch?

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

I don't use fully synth oil but there are several people on here that do and there seem to be no clutch slip problems on the SV.Maybe the engine is not powerful enough to overcome the clutch?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sure I'd read about it here more than once. Isn't the problem with finding neutral that some people experience sometimes attributed to it too?

EDIT: BTW I myself had clutch slip, so much so that it cooked the clutch; whilst I think part of it was down to poor adjustment of the clutch cable early on in the bike's life (dealer did it, not me and I was too inexperienced to know better!), I was (perhaps only coeincidentally) also running fully synthetic when it occured.

Semi-syn only for me now, at least on the SV.

[jambo]

Fully Synth bike oil should be fine regarding clutch slip. But I agree you'd probably have felt just as good changing for semi-synth

[northwind]

New oil is always better than old oil... In 4000 miles, if you swap that for Tesco's Own Brand Bike Oil it'll feel better But it certainly shouldn't do any harm once the engine's run in- it'll be all API'd and JASO WHATSIT'd for wet clutch usage.

yeah, I totally know what I'm talking about with the oil codes, can you tell

Originally Posted by northwind

New oil is always better than old oil... In 4000 miles, if you swap that for Tesco's Own Brand Bike Oil it'll feel better But it certainly shouldn't do any harm once the engine's run in- it'll be all API'd and JASO WHATSIT'd for wet clutch usage.

yeah, I totally know what I'm talking about with the oil codes, can you tell

+1

the only way to compare oil is to put new oil in, go for a short 25 mile ride than change the oil

you cannot compare dirty oil to clean oil

I am of the opinion that oil is oil so long as it meets suzuki specs

will spending a lot of money on expensive oil make the engine last longer

put 130,000 miles on your SV then talk to me, oil is oil

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by simon1966

Just read the comment about "Cant Justify" the cost of fully synthetic. My opinion, £30 is money well spent. Considering I did it myself and with the filter it cost £40 whereas if I had taken it to a dealer what would I have paid then?
Simon

Well, we've always used Motul semi-synthetic ( which if you buy from Hein Gericke also gets you a free oil filter and air filter chucked in) at £24.50 for 5 litres. We would never use fully synthetic oil.