Oils Is oils (sometimes...)
I hate paying more than I need to for anything, and with Harley engine oils never being cheap Ive rarely bought them, except for gearbox oil and occasionally primary oil. It made me think when Harley bought out their new oil that you can put in all three areas, that there's probably other oils out there, that'll do exactly the same job, but cheaper. So I trawled the web, and below is a few links that tell it as it is. Harley oil aint that special.The new synthetic that they sell, isnt made by them, just like their other oils have never been, and theres alternatives around if you look and think. Harley now admitting that using other oils wont void any warranties (with one exception) lets us know this.
The other interesting fact I found is that motorcycle specific oils in general seem to be a rip off....They dont contain much of anything different to automobile oils that'll protect your engine from wear any more than a good quality auto oil.
Ive been running S&S engines for 11 years, and the interesting thing is S&S wont specify a brand of oil. If we agree that as their engines are basically identical to Harley engines, but are more stressed, because of higher compression pistons and generally larger horsepower outputs, then their recommendation for any quality motorcycle specific oil, says a lot. Over the years Ive used castrol GTX2 ( which isnt touted as motorcycle specific..)with good results. Its cheap at k-mart and the proof is in the pudding, its done the job.However having read all the guff below, Im leaning towards a good synthetic when I do the next oil change..Ive had some mobil 4T synthetic racing oil around for a while, and its just gone in the primary and gearbox, so we'll see how it goes.
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What type of oil should I use?
S & S recommends a premium brand of 20W50 oil formulated
specifically for motorcycle use for all Long Blocks. In
Shovel-Style Long Blocks, 50 or even 60 wt oil is
usually acceptable in hot areas where temperatures below
75? are seldom encountered. In S & S's experience it is
best to break the engine in with petroleum-based oil
and, if a synthetic oil is preferred, change to
synthetic after break-in.
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Mixing oils....When youre away on a run 80 miles out of East Bumfuck, and you see you need some oil, what do you top up with? Who carries Harley oil? You put in a quality 20w -50 and it works fine.Same goes for mixing synthetics and dino oils...it aint gonna hurt...most dino oils contain synthetics as part of there makeup anyway according to the blurbs below...Last link is about running 50w in your engine when its warm....
clik link
Specific motorcycle oils and false claims
excerpt...It could appear from this data, then, that there is no validity to the constantly-used argument that motorcycle-specific oils provide superior lubrication to automotive oils when used in a motorcycle. If the viscosity drop is the only criterion, then there is certainly no reason to spend the extra money on oil specifically designed for motorcycles. There does, however, appear to be a legitimate argument for using synthetic and synthetic-blend oils over the petroleum based products
