Cheap Castrol bike oil @ Tesco

[Keith Cross]

One thing to check with oils before using them is to see if they conform to JASO-MA.  This type of oil will be OK with wet clutches and comes in semi or fully synth oil
Car oil marked as energy conserving should not be used with wet clutches as it can cause clutch slip.

Keith C

[stibbs]

One thing to check with oils before using them is to see if they conform to JASO-MA.  This type of oil will be OK with wet clutches and comes in semi or fully synth oil
Car oil marked as energy conserving should not be used with wet clutches as it can cause clutch slip.

Keith C

Yep, that's the main thing to worry about.

[skipper]

I used Halfords fully synthetic mc oil in my st1100 ( thought I would give her a treat), result was a slipping clutch. Now I tend to use only semi synth in wet clutch bikes.You need to be wary of oils that do not have the jaso ma spec and do not believe what the idiots who work in the shops tell you ( I did ask in Halfords if it was suitable for wet clutches) most  have no idea.

[thebigcheese]

anyone been using fully synthetic for a long time in their strom? or has anyone had any problems using it in their strom?

[Strommer]

I'm on my third load of fully synth (castrol as it happens).  Very happy, slicker gear changes for the first 2000 miles, after that it behaves much like semi-synth.  I find the semi starts to behave like an older oil after 1000 miles.

Oh, and it doesn't burn off so quickly as the semi, so I don't check it nearly so much.

Worth the difference...?  For a leisure rider I'd say get the cheapest and change more often as condensation is a  bigger problem than oil quality.  Nothing beats new oil.

[thebigcheese]

oh good to hear/. nah its just that a Suzuki mechanic told me not to use fully synthetic on my vee and that they don't use fully synthetic on any of there bikes.

I have 12 or 13 bottles of the castrol power 1 racing 4t from tescos. was a little put off when the Suzuki mechanic told me to take it back and get my money back on it  

[Jacko]

If it meets the requirements as set out in the user handbook with regards to minimum quality and the handbook doesn't specially state that fully synthetic mustn't be used it'll be fine.. I use Castrol power racing fully synth in my zx6r and the clutch is just fine.. I'm convinced the dealers bang on about the evils of good fully synth oil to justify them buying cheaper barrels of semi synth.

[Keith Cross]

Nothing wrong with fully styh oil if you are getting it cheap, but not worth paying the extra money for unless you are racing or are going to try and extend oil change intervals.

Keith C