Comments on: Anyone care about oil?

By: Manny

Manny — Wed, 09 May 2018 08:23:00 +0000

Another advocate for Shell Rotella here. I run the T6 in my CBR1000RR and it runs great. Tried a few oils and only Rotella comes close to Repsol and Motul to giving me smooth shifting action. At half the cost, loaded with tons of ZDDP, and with great TBN’s from Blackstone, I don’t run anything else. I recommend it for everyone’s bike I work on.

By: Mike Ashleigh

Mike Ashleigh — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 20:33:14 +0000

VR1 is good oil. Just keep in mind its racing oil, which means that it is meant to be changed quite frequently. In motorcycles where almost every oil contact surface is cast aluminum, anti-oxidizers in oil is actually pretty important. VR1 doesnt have any of these. I do recommend this oil if you dont plan on running it all year without a change.

The oil I have been using since my second motorcycle oil change is Shell Rotella. It has a ridiculous amount of ZDDP (essentially what you mean when you say your oil has Zinc) yet its meant to stay in your engine a long time, and its pretty cheap, and widely available. Both the T4 and the T6 are JASO-MA rated, which essentially means that they are good to go with wet clutches. I have gallons upon gallons of this stuff at home because I run it in all bikes (Air Cooled Kawasaki 4 cyl, Kawasaki Dirtbike, Harley Evo), I run it in my car (Turbo Subaru making ~ 145 bhp/liter) and I run it in all my low end Craftsman lawn and garden equipment because its cheap enough and I dont feel like having multiple different kinds of oil in my garage.

People get strangely attached to and thusly defensive of their oil choices. Zinc is good for metal to metal wear, but there are actually alot of jobs that oil does and someone can tailor their oil choice best to their personal approach to maintenance.

My take on synthetic is this: It doesnt necessarily ‘perform’ any better than dino oil, however, when you really heat the oil up, you have a better chance of the oil still being able to do its job (prevent wear) when you are running synthetic. Synthetic oil is cheap enough these days anyway. I’m not the most anal about preventative maintenance, I’m more of a run it hard, fix it when it breaks kind of guy so synthetic is a good compliment to my style.

By: clinton

clinton — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 14:32:24 +0000

I use synthetic motor oil and add a zinc additive, both you can find at any chain auto parts store

https://rislone.com/product/3x-concentrated-engine-oil-supplement-with-zinc-treatment/

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 13:49:14 +0000

I just picked up a Triumph TR25W and the guy I bought it off of swears by the Valvoline VR1. He runs a few old British singles as scramble/dirt bikes and says the zinc helps wear and tear.

By: Brian G

Brian G — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 22:06:42 +0000

Here is a link to an article about zinc in oil. I think I might try using a zinc additive in the convention mc oil I use.

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2012/10/18/tech-101-zinc-in-oil-and-its-effects-on-older-engines/

By: Brian G

Brian G — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 21:57:12 +0000

I’ve heard good things about avocado oil. And it does have zinc…

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 02:33:19 +0000

You change your oil?