oil

It is my personal opinion, not backed up by much science at all, is that if you put new oil in of the correct grade, i.e. in your case 20w-40, you can't do a whole lot of harm.
In an aircooled bike, where the oil gets quite a belting, putting any new oil in can only be a good thing.
If that there GTX was Castrol , then changing to a different brand might actually be a good thing. Reason - once upon a time that stuff was formulated to drop all the contaminants out as a sludge.
Theory was this was better than pumping it through your oil galleries, but my mechanic mate used to hate it with a passion, because motors that had run on Castrol GTX were very dirty bloody things to work on when you had to pull them apart.
Apparently Castrol recognised this as a problem, because during his last stint in a dealership, in the 90's I think, they sent the representatives around to say how they had improved the oil so it did not do this anymore. Bought 'em all a drink and tried to convince the mechanics that it was OK to put in an engine from now on. My mates response - " Well boss, if you want me to put it in the customers cars I guess I'll have to, but its never going in any of my vehicles."
I note that he still uses Penrite now that he has his own garage and can chooose whatever he wants to use.
I reckon it would pay to change the oil filter fairly soon, but Penrite never seems to hurt anything I own.
She'll be right , mate.
Mick

Hi,

Blimey, that was a good deal!

I use Valvoline XLD Premium...20W - 50...been using it for years with no adverse effects...and it's $15 for 5 litres.

SR

Hate oil threads! Like, what's your favorite color... My two cents worth... Here in the US, we have to stay away from the lighter grades marked "Energy Conserving". They have friction modifiers added and do not work well with "Wet" type clutches. Not real sure if you are dealing with the same additive problems in Au. Just for your information.
Willie

Thats the go Stew.
My cars use Penrite, cause I'm too busy, (or is that lazy) to service them myself, so my mate does 'em and as stated he's a Penrite man. I must admit, they do have the best paint jobs on the 44 gallon drums he buys in, which is probably as good a reason as any to choose that brand.
Like you I use valvoline xld in the bike, cause that's what the previous owner used, and when I discovered I could get it for about $18 for 5 litres, I was delighted. Well under $10 per oil change, means you can afford to change it often - 3000 km intervals as per the manual for me.
Saw an article in a pilots magazine years ago, the question was "What do you do when you land at a remote airport, check the oil in the plane, and discover she's nearly empty and they don't stock you brand?"
Answer, "Fill the bloody thing up with anything that's reasonably close in grade. Won't hurt it, and only a nut takes off with low oil in the engine."
Made me think, that did.
So that's been the rules I work by, any oil is better than no oil, and new oil is better than old oil.
As you guys say though - stay away from synthetics and friction modifiers, we want clutches to work.
An interesting factoid - my mate actually did his trade in the early seventies at a Ford dealership. The old XY GT's occaisionally were very hard to change gears, sometimes the old top loader 4 speeds were a bit tight when new. The cure - drop the gear box oil and fill up with engine oil.
Mick

Whoa, not looking to start another war over oil lads, enough of those already.

I always stick to mineral oils, even in my newer car.

That valvoline XLD price sounds good.....might look that up. Well I took the baby SR for a blast from Sydney to home on the weekend, home being South coast not too far just past the 'gong.

Well the 250 didn't miss a beat, even in the wet, and it was the first longer test I gave her since adding the pipe and k&n (no carb mods). She was pulling 110kph at 1500 revs less, around 6500, than when I went home with her stock.Add some wind and things changed though....

Anyway the oil can't of hurt.

On an amusing side note, I had a "race" of sorts in traffic with an Aston Martin. This vanquish was one of those knobs who has a fast car, and keeps trying for every gap he can find. Problem was, he kept racing up the left or right and getting stuck behind someone waiting to turn. So by sitting back and looking ahead, and the lane change advantage, I kept coming up beside him and going past. Well after the second time, he seemed to get the shites that his 400k car was getting over taken by me, ad every time I caught up, he would burn off into a gap, only to get caught again.

This happened about 13 times over an hour. I lost him for 20 minutes once, and thought he had finally got out in the clear, but then at a lights, he came right up behind me! His girlfriend didn't look impressed! hahahahah Maybe because it was her car...the no. plate was SUZAN5.

Good times.

You are right CJ - even the cheapest high grade oil has to be as good as the high grade of 25 years ago.
No "wars" about oil for me, I do believe I have already admitted I buy the really cheap stuff .
Mick

I've just noticed my Cucleserv manual says to use Yamalube 20W/40 motor oil or equivalent. It's probably not worth paying the extra money for the yammy stuff is it? I am making the assumption it'd be more expensive.............