Went on a road trip last week from Iowa to Colorado and it was insanely hot! Bike is a 2012 Victory Cross Country.
Anyways, I noticed about halfway through the trip (1750 mi in 4 days) that my shifting became very notchy feeling, especially on down shifts. This was the first time I had used Rotella T6 15w-40 which many on here and Victory pages like. But it seemed like it sheared very quickly! We ran about 70-80mph most of the trip to CO. Once in CO we tooled around the roads and I did run it pretty hard on the mountains, but I didn’t think fresh oil would shear that quickly. Before this I had always ran the “Victory oil change kit” but they are insanely expensive! I haven’t had this bad of shifting feel on this bike. So it makes me wonder if it’s just heat that caused it or if maybe I was riding it harder than I though. Either way, less than 2k on oil is a no-go for me.
I’ve been looking at some different oils, just like I thoroughly researched the T6. So now I’m looking for some guys that ride their V-Twins spirited like I do with good experience with a certain oil. I’m thinking of stepping up to a 20w-50 possibly. My current front runners are:
Schaeffers 20w-50 v-twin
M1 15w-40 or 20w-50 v-twin or 4t racing (not sure the difference?)
SuperTech 20w-50 v-twin
Castrol Power 1 15w-40 or 20w-50
I’m open to suggestions too. I would love amsoil, but there is none available locally and I don’t feel like ordering oil online. I haven’t heard much on these forums about Lucas motorcycle oils, leads me to believe they are just meh. I haven’t figured out what the difference between “4T” or “V-Twin” oils are. Only thing I can think of is shear stability would likely be better on a v-twin oil due to lots of torque and heavy loads.
Mine is the blue one.
Anyways, I noticed about halfway through the trip (1750 mi in 4 days) that my shifting became very notchy feeling, especially on down shifts. This was the first time I had used Rotella T6 15w-40 which many on here and Victory pages like. But it seemed like it sheared very quickly! We ran about 70-80mph most of the trip to CO. Once in CO we tooled around the roads and I did run it pretty hard on the mountains, but I didn’t think fresh oil would shear that quickly. Before this I had always ran the “Victory oil change kit” but they are insanely expensive! I haven’t had this bad of shifting feel on this bike. So it makes me wonder if it’s just heat that caused it or if maybe I was riding it harder than I though. Either way, less than 2k on oil is a no-go for me.
I’ve been looking at some different oils, just like I thoroughly researched the T6. So now I’m looking for some guys that ride their V-Twins spirited like I do with good experience with a certain oil. I’m thinking of stepping up to a 20w-50 possibly. My current front runners are:
Schaeffers 20w-50 v-twin
M1 15w-40 or 20w-50 v-twin or 4t racing (not sure the difference?)
SuperTech 20w-50 v-twin
Castrol Power 1 15w-40 or 20w-50
I’m open to suggestions too. I would love amsoil, but there is none available locally and I don’t feel like ordering oil online. I haven’t heard much on these forums about Lucas motorcycle oils, leads me to believe they are just meh. I haven’t figured out what the difference between “4T” or “V-Twin” oils are. Only thing I can think of is shear stability would likely be better on a v-twin oil due to lots of torque and heavy loads.
Mine is the blue one.