[SV DAVE]

I have ran synthetic oil, motorcycle and car, in the following bikes for the last 15 years. No, I did own all of them at the same time. Usually two or three at a time.

ZX10R
V-Max, just had to see what V-boost was all about :shock:
ZX7RR
GSXR1100
CBR600F3
R1
SV1KS

No problems at all that were anything near oil specific. On a few of the bikes I did have clutch slipage but that was due to a warn clutch, not the oil.

If your clutch slips, change the clutch springs not the oil.

Synthetic oil has not dropped the operating temp on any of my bikes but the fact that the friction modifiers in Dino oil are most effected by extreem heat and the synthetic modifiers are less so I see synthetic as having yet another advantage.

Motul 300V uses no friction modifiers as it is the only 100% ester based oil on the market. This is the highest grade of base stock that can be used for oil production.

Most other synthetics are less than 30% ester but all performed well for me with no less than 20K miles put on each of the bikes listed with the exception of the SV. It has just over 12k miles. :niceone: I am not known for being easy on my toys but I do work hard to maintain them.

 

[R-WEST]

Hey, BTW, for all the diesel lovers, I just heard that Mobil 1 15-50 is now available in CH, CI and CJ-4 iteration. If it can handle the crud a diesel produces, it should be the cat's whiskers for everything else. I'm off to Wal-Mart to look for some

Note to self - do NOT rely on memory, it's been proven faulty too many times. Okay, the new Mobil 1 is actually 5w-40, not 15-50. Saw some at Wal-Mart today - it's got a yellow cap so it's easy to spot.

 

[pasystm]

hey guys...ive just moved and i lost my manual.
how many quarts when you change oil ?? (change filter too of course)
is it 3.8qt.??

btw.. i been running mobil 1 15w-50 for cars in my bike since about 1500miles
now over 11k and no probs.
also ran it in an interceptor had over 20k miles
and ran mobil 1 10w-30 in nighthawk 750.
i usually wreck em before i wear em out.

 

[Bayouboy]

...i usually wreck em before i wear em out.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Chainsaw Willie!]

Really, has anybody here ever had a bike long enough to wear it out?
Has anybody had a piston seizure, or a bearing failure, stuck valve, or any other lubrication failure on a motorcycle in the last 20 years?

The last bike I had for 40,000 miles. I changed the oil about twice a year, and used whatever was on sale. When sold, it still had like new compression and didn't burn a drop of oil.

How many folk here have owned a bike for 10 years? I don't think most keep a bike for 5 years before buying something different. How would you know one oil is protecting better than the other? The typical bike owner simply doesn't own a bike long enough to wear it out.

:angry: :ranting: Prepare for monster chainsaw willie! rant :ranting: :angry:

Modern japenese bikes don't wear out, they are killed by their masters.

1. They get loving care for the first three years.

2. Then they get sold to some young thrasher who either destroys it in a single vehicle accident or they keep it for two years then sell it to an even younger and even more clueless thrasher.

3. Finally it ends up in the hands of someone who rides less than 1000 miles a year. This guy leaves it in the pounding rain all winter and is suprised to find the battery dead on the first sunny day in spring. He borrows a charger from his mothers boyfriend and manages to get the now damaged battery to hold just barely enough juice to start the bike once. After this first sunny day of spring the guy only rides the bike 3 more times that year. Since he doesn't want to spend cash on replacing the worthless battery he has to charge the battery each time he rides it. And now the charging system is starting to strain from constantly being at full output pumping electrons into a partially shorted battery. Motorcycle riding becomes too much of a pain in the butt and he leaves it parked for another winter in the rain. Next year the fuel has turned harder than epoxy and has completly plugged the pilot jets.

4. It won't start at all and is traded to a girlfriends brother for a case of Schmidt beer. The new owner buys a battery, but can only occaisionaly get it to start, and it dies at idle. He eventually decides that Jap bikes are cheap crap and buys a leather Harley Davidson baseball cap to wear to the tavern.

5. The bike gets pushed behind a dumpster at a crack motel and remains there untill the motel owner pushes it out to the street where is sits on display like a dead possum until the county picks it up and puts it in impound. 6 months later it is sent to a metal recycler and smashed into 1000 Schlitz Malt Liquor cans. And up to this last point the crank bearings, cam lobes, piston rings, and all the other parts bathed in oil, still have 100,000 miles of usable life left on them.

:ranting: HEAR ME NOW, AND BELIEVE ME LATER :ranting:
:ranting:THIS IS THE FATE OF 75% OF ALL THE YAMAHA R6'S SOLD TODAY!:ranting:

Does anybody remember the Kawasaki ZX600 Ninja of 1985?
It was a cutting edge sportbike,
then one of the greatest squid magnets of the late '80s and early '90s,

:ranting: NOW THE LAST OF 'EM ARE PARKED BEHIND DUMPSTERS AT YER MOTHERS PLACE!:ranting:

Oil doesn't kill motorcycles. People kill motorcycles.


This isn't 1953, it's actually kinda hard to find bad oil in 2004! Just about any motor oil you get will be good and any Motorcycle oil you get will also be good and may also tolerate a longer interval between changes.

I wonder how many sportbikes with coffee colored brake fluid are
sitting parked in the rain with $28 worth of oil in the crankcase.

Your bike is significantly more likely to be run over and crushed by a
Pennzoil truck than throw a rod because you didn't buy Motul.

END RANT MODE

...and now back to your normal motorcycle forum, which is already in progress...

 

[Bish]

hey guys...ive just moved and i lost my manual.
how many quarts when you change oil ?? (change filter too of course)
is it 3.8qt.??

REF:SV1000 K3 Service Manual - 2 - Periodic Maintainance
Section 2-14

The engine will hold about 2.7L (2.9/2.4 US/Imp Qt) of oil. Use an API classification of SF or SG oil with SAE 10W40 viscosity.
Oil drian plug :23 N-m (2.3 kgf-m 16.5lb-ft)


Cheers
Bish

 

[kryten]

Really, has anybody here ever had a bike long enough to wear it out?
Has anybody had a piston seizure, or a bearing failure, stuck valve, or any other lubrication failure on a motorcycle in the last 20 years?

Ace rant Willie. Couldn't agree more!

 

[okimic]

Hey bish---

Where is the...

****Caution****
Use Motorcycle specific (EDIT: non-synthetic) oil in the engine, failure to do so will result in catastrophic failure!

...passage in the service manual?

Mike

 

[rogfog]

Really, has anybody here ever had a bike long enough to wear it out?
Has anybody had a piston seizure, or a bearing failure, stuck valve, or any other lubrication failure on a motorcycle in the last 20 years?

...

Actually yes !!

I rode a Honda VF 750 way back when. 8 valves bounced off the piston crowns as it seized at about 60mph - nothing to do with oil mind just a broken camchain tensioner spring !

Had a TZR 250 seize on me at 80 as well - that WAS a lubrication fault !! (not enough of it !!)

 

[Morphias]

Hi Dave,
I've got 9300 miles with a few powershifts thrown in along the way. No clutch slipping going on here. Matter of fact, when I powershift from 2nd to 3rd, the bike really jumps.

Miami John

I think many of you are missing the idea of a slipper clutch and what I was trying to convey.

The issue with the full synthetics is not in it causing the clutch to 'slip' on shifting'.

The idea of the slipper clutch is to stop rear wheel lockups when you downshift at too high-a-revs. The clutch is designed to 'slip', in this situation, instead of fully engaging and causing a lockup which can lead to a loss of control.

Suzuki say that a full synthetic oil does not allow the clutch to do this effectively.

A comparison to an FZ1, or any bike other than an SV1000, TLR or Raptor 1000; is not really relevant because they run completely different clutches.

 

[Bish]

Hey bish---

Where is the...

****Caution****
Use Motorcycle specific (EDIT: non-synthetic) oil in the engine, failure to do so will result in catastrophic failure!

...passage in the service manual?

Mike

As far I can recall it doesn't say that in the service manual.

I did a search in the pdf's and there's no incidence of "catastrophic" in there.

Below are pics of oil related info from the service manual.

Cheers
Bish

 

[BlueTroll]

How many folk here have owned a bike for 10 years? I don't think most keep a bike for 5 years before buying something different.
Oil doesn't kill motorcycles. People kill motorcycles.

I have a 1989 Hawk GT that I bought new in 91 with 56K miles on it. I have run the piss out of it up in the north GA mountains and around here in Mouse Town and can't kill it no matter what I do. I have, of course, changed the oil every 2.5-3K miles with fresh dino juice.

My 1997 Bandit 1200 is 6 years old now with 36K miles on it. Wille, I may not be the average biker but I keep them a long time and ride the hell out of them! My newest addition, the SVN, is not quite a year old with 7k+ miles.
YMMV

Rick in Orlando
(you are right, people kill motorcyles, not oil)

 

[okimic]

Bish...

You are hardcore brother...strong work on the above attachments...

I was joking about the ominous warnings everyone has about the dangers of not using a motorcycle specific oil or using a synthetic oil, etc.

I didn't intend to imply that my "passage" was supposed to be in there.

Just trying to make the point that if Suzuki thought it was important they would have probably put it into the owners or service manual not to use a specific grouping of oils.

Mike

 

[SV DAVE]

Chainsaw Willie,

That 85 ZX600 you mentioned was my first SS bike. Rode it for over 60K miles in four years. The engine did let go, spun a crank bearing after running 30 minutes wide open down I-65 South at the Greenwood, KY exit. :bash: What a mess. :no: Can't really say it was the oil. I didn't, and still don't, know much about the internal working of I4 or V-twin sport bikes. Just what I have learned from servicing them myself.

I use as high a quality of oil as possible for my own piece of mind more than anything else. None of the other bikes I have owned has had a mechanical failure of any kind. Current generation bikes are as bullet proof as they can be and I agree we will all most likely sell our bikes before we wear them out. But in the time we have them we must be happy and if using dino oil or a premium synthetic makes us more comfortable then we will enjoy our bikes that much more.

I don't have a patch or decal that shows I use Motul. But it makes me happy to know that it is in my cranckcase. :beer:

 

[pasystm]

REF:SV1000 K3 Service Manual - 2 - Periodic Maintainance
Section 2-14

The engine will hold about 2.7L (2.9/2.4 US/Imp Qt) of oil. Use an API classification of SF or SG oil with SAE 10W40 viscosity.
Oil drian plug :23 N-m (2.3 kgf-m 16.5lb-ft)


Cheers
Bish

thanks for the help....i managed to find my service manual....looks like i overfilled w/ 3.8 qt. instead of 3.1 (w/filter)
i probably should have just looked in the oil window. :doh:

 

[rocket190]

Really, has anybody here ever had a bike long enough to wear it out?
Has anybody had a piston seizure, or a bearing failure, stuck valve, or any other lubrication failure on a motorcycle in the last 20 years?

The last bike I had for 40,000 miles. I changed the oil about twice a year, and used whatever was on sale. When sold, it still had like new compression and didn't burn a drop of oil.

How many folk here have owned a bike for 10 years? I don't think most keep a bike for 5 years before buying something different. How would you know one oil is protecting better than the other? The typical bike owner simply doesn't own a bike long enough to wear it out.

:angry: :ranting: Prepair for monster chainsaw willie! rant :ranting: :angry:

Modern japenese bikes don't wear out, they are killed by their masters.

1. They get loving care for the first three years.

2. Then they get sold to some young thrasher who either destroys it in a single vehicle accident or they keep it for two years then sell it to an even younger and even more clueless thrasher.

3. Finally it ends up in the hands of someone who rides less than 1000 miles a year. This guy leaves it in the pounding rain all winter and is suprised to find the battery dead on the first sunny day in spring. He borrows a charger from his mothers boyfriend and manages to get the now damaged battery to hold just barely enough juice to start the bike once. After this first sunny day of spring the guy only rides the bike 3 more times that year. Since he doesn't want to cash on replacing the worthless battery he has to charge the battery each time he rides it. And now the charging system is starting to strain from constantly being at full output pumping electrons into a partially shorted battery. Motorcycle riding becomes too much of a pain in the butt and he leaves it parked for another winter in the rain. Next year the fuel has turned harder than epoxy and has completly plugged the pilot jets.

4. It won't start at all and is traded to a girlfriends brother for a case of Schmidt beer. The new owner buys a battery, but can only occaisionly get it to start, and it dies at idle. He eventually decides that Jap bikes are cheap crap and buys a leather Harley Davidson baseball cap to wear to the tavern.

5. The bike gets pushed behind a dumpster at a crack motel and remains there untill the motel owner pushes it out to the street where is sits on display like a dead possum until the county picks it up and puts it in impound. 6 months later it is sent to a metal recycler and smashed into 1000 Schlitz Malt Liquor cans. And up to this last point the crank bearings, cam lobes, piston rings, and all the other parts bathed in oil, still have 100,000 miles of usable life left on them.

:ranting: HEAR ME NOW, AND BELIEVE ME LATER :ranting:
:ranting:THIS IS THE FATE OF 75% OF ALL THE YAMAHA R6'S SOLD TODAY!:ranting:

Does anybody remember the Kawasaki ZX600 Ninja of 1985?
It was a cutting edge sportbike,
then one of the greatest squid magnets of the late '80s and early '90s,

:ranting: NOW THE LAST OF 'EM ARE PARKED BEHIND DUMPSTERS AT YER MOTHERS PLACE!:ranting:

Oil doesn't kill motorcycles. People kill motorcycles.


This isn't 1953, it's actually kinda hard to find bad oil in 2004! Just about any motor oil you get will be good and any Motorcycle oil you get will also be good and may also tolerate a longer interval between changes.

I wonder how many sportbikes with coffee colored brake fluid are
sitting parked in the rain with $28 worth of oil in the crankcase.

Your bike is significantly more likely to be run over and crushed by a
Pennzoil truck than throw a rod because you didn't buy Motul.

END RANT MODE

...and now back to your normal motorcycle forum, which is already in progress...

LMAO! How true!

 

[rjk]

Mixing different viscosity oil?

I have been using a 10w-40 and noticed it was a tad low...though still above the lower bar. Stopped by GI Joes which has Amsoil and all they had was 20w-50. Since summer is coming and I'll be riding in some hot weather on my CA trip I was thinking of going with 20-50 anyway. Is there ANY reason not to top it off with the higher viscosity oil? I truly can't think it would hurt...but I just wanted to double check with you experts here. Cheers!! Hope you all had a good riding weekend. :niceone:

 

[rgorzka]

tink you should stay with the manufactures recommendations.

 

[Chris Shelly]

I believe it is like mixing octane grades. You will get a blend of 20w-50 and 10w-40. I don't see how it can cause any harm as long as the oil is from the same brand. So in your crank you have something like 15w-45. Since it is summer I don't see any real problems but I would be careful if you decide to go out if it gets cold.

 

[Chainsaw Willie!]

I have mixed different viscosity oils and different brand oils over the last 25 years (somewhere around 90K to 120K miles all bikes combined). I have never had a lubrication related failure, nor have I ever had any premature wear problems due to poor lubrication.

In fact, the only case of failure, or premature wear, on a streetbike that I have seen, have been due directly to abuse and complete lack of maintanance. That is, stuff like holding the throttle wide open with no load for an extended period of time (burn out contest) or NEVER having the oil changed, or continuing to ride the bike with an insufficient oil level for extended periods.

Topping off with a different viscosity or brand is a perfectly reasonable and safe thing to do.