Evening all Just asked the previous owner of the ST4s what oil he'd been using ...... Rock Guardian 10/40 semi-synth, apparently, although only for the last 1.5k. This would be great as it's the oil I put in my Deauvilles, except .... .... last oil order I just asked Rock to stick in a bottle of thier recommended oil and I ended up with some madly exotic race oil .... can't remember the name and can't be arsed to go and look .... but it's a 15/50 fully synth. Seems a bit like overkill as I can't honestly imagine me giving this bike a great deal of stick and I like to change oil at half the book interval anyway. So, who uses what? Cheers.
Book spec for the oil is a 10w40. At the risk of a flaming, and starting a lengthy oil thread, I'm using Motul 300V fully synth in 5w40. The thinking behind this is that the 5w will get the oil to the moving parts (especially the valve gear) quicker than a 10w, and the normal running weight of 40 is the same.
In my ST3 and nearly all my other bikes I was running Shell advance 10/40 Fully synth I honestly think that thre is much too much worrying about exactly the type of oil - I have certainly been guilty of it in the past!
Motul 300v and i change it at least twice between services. Never had a rocker issue, or any other kind of engine wear related issue for that matter. Its expensive but it gives me peace of mind.
All multigrade oils are a compromise because Nature is a fickle mistress and manufacturing tolerances have got a lot tighter in the endless search for economy and performance. Ideally you'd have a single weight oil for a constant temperature. Thinner oil has the viscocity to be pushed around the engine oilways at low temperature but thicker oil retains the viscocity that is not too thin at high temperature. In reality for something like the ST4s, a good quality semi synthetic 5/40, 10/40 or 15/50 regularly changed is going to preserve the longevity of your engine. Don't matter if it's Motul or Shell or Agip just so long as it meets a high spec and you change the filter as well. My bike gets its annual service in February and usually has an oil and filter change twice more through the year. Andy
Wha What do you say @bobt? Fully synth every time for me. All oils are thick when cold but multigrade oils are thinner when cold compared to single grade. Simplistically speaking, the first multigrade number refers to its cold viscosity and the second to its hot viscosity. I'm going to try Mobil one for my next oil change. I'm not convinced we need bike specific oil for our dry clutch engines, so a high quality road engine fully synth oil should be perfect.
Yes in my opinion there is some sense being spoken here, but that is my opinion. It is up to the individual to make the decision on what he wants to use. The only thing that I would add is that there is no need to change the oil more often than the Ducati tells you to. There is more risk from oil related damage by disturbing the system more often than there is from leaving the oil change for longer periods. You won't wreck a modern engine by using any modern oil, you may advance the wear a bit, but you will not have the bike when it has done 200,000 miles anyway.
I've used Mobil 1 15/50 fully synth in all my Harley's with no probs. My 14yr old Road-King has 40,000 on the clock. I doubt you will go far wrong with your oil according to all the stuff I've read.
This has been discussed a few times before and the answers always seem to range from "only use really expensive oil and change it really often" to "use whatever comes to hand and change it whenever". I'm pretty sure that any decent quality semi-synthetic will do the job - they're all made to similar specifications. It's probably more important to remember not to thrash the engine until it's had a chance to warm up, and to use decent quality oil filters. Mine's done nearly 40,000 miles, has never had fully synthetic oil in it, and as far as I can tell is doing just fine...
Agreed, fully syth is probably overkill in these engines. Totally agree that regular oil and filter changes and warming the engine up slowly are the most important factors. Other than that, most of us have sold the bike or it's been trashed for some other reason before it actually wears out.
Bike specific oils account for the fact that they are required to lube the gearbox as well as the engine. Cars run separate oils. The shear and compressive forces placed on the oil by the transmission aren't accounted for in car oils. Mobil do a specific bike oil if you want to try the brand, but I'd be cautious using car oils in a bike engine.
Is that correct? Every BL A series engine (as fitted to minis and many other cars) had its gearbox inside the engines sump. Oils were not anywhere near as good then as they are now. Are you saying that car oils can be no longer used for these cars? There are also many Jap cars that used engine oil in their gearboxes. Forget about the sales hype that oil companies feed people, they only exist to take as much money off you as they can, they are a business. I'll leave this thread now and let you get on with it.
They did indeed, and why many recommended 'classic oils' for these older cars are now motorcycle oils.... It's a massive subject and a mine field. Go with the best you can afford. Many, many oils meet standards but not all oils are the same. Everyone has a favourite and a tale to tell
I have in the past had an arrangement with Rock Oil (racing) Before that I was using a Silkolene product. I think the rock oil fully synth I used in race engine is 5w/40 but it's not something they stock in many shops, I had it delivered in 2Oltr drums. 4 Stroke Oil - Rock Oil Synthesis 4 Fully Synthetic 5w40 1 Litre If my bike was 100% track bike I would use fully. If I did the odd track day I'd probably use semi and change it afterwards. I have used good semi in all my road bikes to date but each to their own.
In the late 70s I knew a guy with a Combat Commando who worked in a plant producing silicone sealant. The name may have been similar to D*w C*rn*ng... This company sold sealant aimed separately at markets including domestic, automotive and marine and claimed special properties for each. My mate was absolutely clear that exactly the same stuff was in each and every canister... Oil companies are no exception to the desire to maximise profit, so we should all beware of marketing hype. However, I am not suggesting that m/c and car oils are the same. The following is a link to some research done in the 90s to check the validity of marketing claims about motorcycle specific oils. This is of course a while ago but I doubt things have changed much except for the doubtless improvement in the general quality of all oil. The conclusion appears to be that the only real gain to be had is in using fully synthetic oil. Testing Motorcycle Oil
The following is a link to tests done by Amsoil. Amazingly, Amsoil comes out top... There are some interesting points made though. One is that m/c oils need more corrosion inhibitors because m/c s tend to have more and longer periods of inactivity compared to cars, especially in winter. Both Mobil and Motul come out of it very well. http://www.bestoil4you.com/files/g2156MCoilStudy.pdf
When you look up the advantages of using fully-synthetic v semi-synthetic one of them is resistance to oxidisation and thermal breakdown ie it lasts longer. Yet everyone seems to suggest using the most expensive fully-synthetic and change it more often. I bet the makers of fully synthetic oil love that advice I stick to Shell Advance Ultra 4T and change it every £6K miles. Though when I first got the bike I noticed the oil didn't look very clean after a few hundred miles, so on the next oil change I put in a cheap semi-synthetic motorcycle oil, rode it for 50 miles and changed the oil and filter again.
