Have had my bike almost 6 years now, hardly covered any mileage, shame on me. I have always used good quality synthetic engine oil, changed regularly, bloomin expensive considering the low yearly mileage eh. Thinking of using more reasonably priced semi synthetic, any thoughts (gets ready to duck).
When Ducati designed those engines I am sure they would have used something like 10W-40 mineral oil. I know they can get quite hot, being air-cooled, but they have oil coolers, and I would have no qualms about using good quality semi-synthetic (I have just changed the oil in my SSie using Castrol 4T - the semi-synth type, because it was available at a fair price in Asda). On the other hand, what with the price of insurance, tax, etc., if you really want synthetic then it's not that much money (e.g. Shell Advance Ultra often available at very good price). Also, it's crazy to change the oil filter cartridge every time if you do limited mileage, in my view, but it costs nothing to check the mesh filter screen thing.
I have always used semi in all my bikes and never had a problem,when I worked for a dealer we put semi in our race engines.
Semi synthetic is fine in carby 900's, my monster 900 has always had ss rock oil, done nearly 40k miles and its in great shape
have not looked at price of fully synth but I pay around £24 for semi synth rock oil usually pick it up when at a bike show like Stafford I don't go to the local bike shops as they are a tad expensive
I pay about £50 for 2 x 4ltr of shell advance fully synth. inc delivery. Shell Advanced Ultra 4T 10w40 Fully Synthetic Motorcycle Oil 8 L Litres | eBay
Personally I'd be more fussed about the viscosity than the fact that you're usin semi synth for low milages. I am in exactly the same situation and put in 15w50 Rock Oil in last year, as I was cash strapped and it was £25 for 4 litres at the time as opposed to double that for Motul 300v Factoryline, which is my preferred choice when money permits. I based the downgrade in the fact that at 40k miles it burns a bit of oil, so why send expensive oil down the exhaust every 200 miles or so when topping up? Also, the fact that last year I unfortunately did less than 1500 miles and don't believe that the engine would be protected any less with semi for that time. In contrast, when I used my old ST4 year round as my main transport, doing about 6-7k a year, I wouldn't consider putting anything other than FULLY synth in a high performance 4v engine which was doing relatively high miles. Particularly given the Desmoquattro engine's penchant for destroying the rocket chrome! I guess what I'm saying is that IMHO it's horses for courses. Use some common sense and base your decision accordingly. However, it's always cheaper to chuck away good oil than to rebuild an engine . . .
