Mr_Shamrock wrote:

i'd go with mobil 1 , but ANY OIL IS BETTER THAN NO OIL !

Well you are half right. Modern metallurgy has a lot to do with that as well. I don't know how many of you can remember this far back, but when you bought a car or truck back in the fifties you knew you were going to have to have a valve job at or around 40,000 to 60,000 miles. These days many cars run over 150,000 miles and never have had a valve job or the engine opened up at all. I'm sure the improvements in lubrication has helped out too.

Ahamay, you are right along with machining the refining process has improved by leaps and bounds also.

cnc machines.. close tolerances..has changed the
way engines have improved,run better,wear less and are more reliable.Not to mention the way the road* was designed..ceramic coated cylinders..dual plugs,4 valves per cylinder..just downright awesome !! Throw in the oil improvments and we have a great motorcycle..

ahamay wrote:
Well you are half right. Modern metallurgy has a lot to do with that as well. I don't know how many of you can remember this far back, but when you bought a car or truck back in the fifties you knew you were going to have to have a valve job at or around 40,000 to 60,000 miles. These days many cars run over 150,000 miles and never have had a valve job or the engine opened up at all. I'm sure the improvements in lubrication has helped out too.

Another thing to consider is the way most are geared now. Most engines now are designed to build more low end torque and pull overdrive at much lower rpm's. At 50k miles the overdriven engine has made a considerable less number of cycles than a engine that has ran with lower gears (higher numerical). Less cycles means less wear and tear. Just me thinking out loud again!

Dirk R wrote:
Can't wait to read responses to this topic. Machining is the number one reason for longer engine life not your choice of OIL. Quality oil filter (back pressure valve) should be our #1 consideration. There are only a few to consider. O.K. here is my take on oil.
Three basic types.
1. Fully Dino
2. Fully Synthetic
3. Blend (Portions of each of the above)
Unlike filters there are many of each catagory that provide excellent protection for our V-Twin. Run what you prefer as long as it is the correct viscosity and is changed at appropriate mileage intervals. We who live in the suothern part of the country should be running minimum 15-40 or 20-40. The largest contributor to friction reduction is MOLY. Molybenum is in many of the auto oils, especially lower vis that state friction reducing. Molybenum is most likely the biggst culprit to clutch slippage.
My choices are mainly to do with easy access to, availability and reasonable price and specific for wet clutch operation.
Mobil One V-Twin 20-50
Purolator One / Pure One
All just my opinion. I try to keep it simple. Now why the big fuss over oil? These RS's will run forever with basic care.

It'sfunny,you say you dont feel oil quality makes a dif and you run one of the best bike specific oils mfg'd today you can get your hands on in your bike/LOL!!!!!!

Anyway,todays CNC machining is an important part of the puzzle when it comes to extneded/longer engine srv'c life but a good quality engine oil that can protect considerably better then another mfg's oil is importatnt too,esp when it comes to the zddp lvl required for safe FT cam/lifter operation that our old school air cooled R* v-twin's are running.

Now this is the RSC so when you bring up oils and make a statement like you did you have to realize these bike have old school flat tappet cam'd motors & your totally overlooking the fact that they require proper zddp lvls to safely/efficiently protect the lifters/cams which is a much more important issue then fric mods in pass car/truck oil that may or may not result in clutch slippage with no real mehcnaical damage becklash like if ilfters wear our sening metal contam into the entire oiling system of the motor.

ZDDP is also bvery good for protecting our lrg old school air cooled motor that run considerably hotter then your avg bike thats water/coolant cooled & the zddp helps protect the motor from excseeive heat being a lrg air cooled v-twin too. Now most of todays pass car/truck-diesel oils that are rated SM or CJ resp dont have enough ZDDP for FT cam/lifter portection and this is the oil some people are running in their old school R*s vs bike specific oils that have plenty of zddp for safe operation and no fric mod's that in some case cause clutch issues and in other cases don't..

I have seen plenty of issues with bad /worn out lifters and a few bad cams to over the past 4-5 months here in RSC with members bikes. I'd bet the majority of those lifter/cam fails were directly related people running oils with low zddp lvls thats crutial to getting a normal srv'c life out of a FT cam along with maybe a in a few cases maybe going too long inbetween oil changes too. That low zddp lvls in todays pass car/truck-diesel oil issue put a real hurt on the classic car/muscle car motors running Ft cams untill people got on board with changes in oils over past 5 yrs or so that reduced the zddp below lvl's of being effective for FT cam/lifter protection.

Now for the issue of fric mods in pass car/truck oil,that's the least of the worry when runing pass car/truck oil in a wet clutch bike like our's that doesnt always cause clutch slippage in all cases. And even if fic mod cause a clutch to slip they don't cause the mehcnaical damage that lifters/cam's wearing down/out does sending metal particles into the engine's oiling system all of which the filter doesnt pick up resuling in scoring/scrtaching/damaging bottom end like crank/bearings/oil pump/scratch cyl's,etc.

But todays oils are in fact technically better then they were yrs back & re designed specifically for todays motor's running tighter clearances/overhead cams with lighter springs rates/roller cam's not requiring zddp protection and no more car mfg's are installing FT cams anymore too. So keeping that in minnd when they realized that in some cases zddp could at approx 100k miles foul/glog cat converters the feds/EPA made the oil mfg's reduce the zddp lvls in the oil to extend cat converter life for emmissions reasons and thats why the zddp lvl were reduced.

Paas car/truck-diesel Oil mfd today does a good job in today's motors designed for it not running old school FT cams/lifters & wet clutches like our bikes have. That's the reason bike specififc oils have a good dose of zddp for FT cam protection in bikes still using that old tech along with the zddp also providing some additinal protection from extreem heat esp for old school larg disp v-twins like in our bikes.

Let the bullet's fly/LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just my $02 on that one.

PS,theres a non publishe oil sale going on at autozone on valvolines VR1 race ooil with proper zddp lvls,its half price at $2.14 tq coven/approx $4.50 qt full syn in 20-50 grade which is a good oil if you dont mind running an oil whith fric mods when it has like most all oils do today reguardless of grade which i verified by cont mult oil mfg's.

Thats a great price on oil if fric mods dont scare you.

Scott

FYI/UPDATE.

I stopped in Autozone again today to buy more of the valvoline VR1 20-50 race oil that was on sale for doing oil changes on muscle cars i work on and found out the sale ended as of today. Well at least i got the 1st 12 qt's @ $2.14 per qt,dang,should have bought more when i was their earlier in the wk.

Scott

Hope.