| There is a lot of confusion about oil in | | | | it may work, but will my bike die in a year? |
| motorcycles. Specially marketed "motorcycle | | | | In the June 1996 Issue of Sport Rider |
| oil" is a lot more expensive than oil sold | | | | Magazine, there was a report called, "100,000 |
| for cars, but is it really safe to run car | | | | mile Honda CBR900RR." The owner used regular |
| oil? Yes, just make sure it meets SG, SH, SJ, | | | | Castrol GTX car oil, 20W50 in the summer, |
| or SL service requirements. Generally, you | | | | 10W40 in the winter, changed his oil every |
| are better off with a heavy-duty oil for | | | | 4000 miles, only changed the oil filter EVERY |
| motorcycles, such as 15w40, below is a list | | | | OTHER time. When this bike had 100,000 miles |
| of oils known to work well in motorcycles:1. | | | | on it, they dyno'd it up against an identical |
| Chevron Delo 400 15w40 | | | | bike with only 6,722 miles on it, and the |
| | | | horsepower and torque curves were virtually |
| 2. Mobil Delvac 1300 Super 15w40 | | | | identical! The magazine later did a follow |
| | | | up, with the same CBR at 200,000 miles and |
| 3. Pennzoil Long-Life 15w40 | | | | going strong, so as you can see, the oil had |
| | | | no affect on his bike.So, you may wonder, |
| 4. Quaker State 4X4 Synthetic Blend 15w40 | | | | "Why then, is motorcycle sooo much more |
| | | | money, if its the same stuff?"Well, because |
| 5. Shell Rotella-T 15w40 (my personal | | | | they sell motorcycle oil in smaller |
| favorite) | | | | quantities, more packaging, smaller orders, |
| | | | less sales, more cost per quart. Just |
| 6. SuperTech 2000 (WalMart) 15w40 | | | | recently, some of the major oil companies |
| | | | have caught on to this, and have started |
| 7. Valvoline All Fleet 15w40 | | | | selling their own motorcycle oils in auto |
| | | | parts stores and even places like Wal Mart, |
| 8. Castrol Syntec Blend Truck and 4X4 15w40A | | | | and they are MUCH closer to the price of |
| really good choice HAS always been Mobil One | | | | regular car oil, because once again, they are |
| 15w50, but recently they changed their | | | | the massive companies, they move a lot more |
| formula from TriSynthetic to SuperSyn, which | | | | oil, and have less cost per quart. So, when |
| has additional friction modifiers, which may | | | | you buy the really expensive motorcycle oil |
| make it no longer a good choice for bikes. | | | | for your bike, what you are paying for, is |
| This is still up in the air, with people | | | | not better oil, you're just paying for that |
| having mixed results, but I say, why risk it, | | | | companies costs. Get it? Good. Save your |
| try one of the other ones above!Now, this may | | | | money for better things, like new parts! |
| seem sketchy to you, and you're thinking, yea | | | | |