Originally Posted By: Clevy
I'm done spending any extra money on synthetics for my bikes. Cost more and I change them out around 3000 miles anyways so all it does is add cost for no reward.
As far as shearing goes you'll know it when shifting gets notchy. I had an 06 1100 v-star. Great bike. When the oil sheared I had to stomp on the gear shift to switch gears.
Never again will I spend money on synthetics for bikes.
Totally understand where your coming from man, no harm there. To be quite honest, it really was on a whim that I bought the T6 for it, as I just wanted to see how it'd do in my V-Star since it's what my father and I use in our tractor. The (kind-of recent) JASO MA cert was the other reason I said why not. It wasn't all that expensive really, and the bike only takes 3 quarts, so I just bought the gallon jug at Walmart. I don't remember how much it was, but I had money saved anyway for that purpose (of changing the oil in my bike). The next time I change the oil in it, I may use Rotella T 15w-40, but that's not til next summer so by then I might want to try something else. I don't need to change it but once a year since I don't put that many miles on her. But your valid in you're reasoning to just use conventional in your bike.
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
I meant in my post that over time it will indeed shear down to a 40 weight, meaning that if you do practice a longer drain interval you will not have the issue with shearing down to too low of a grade in hot summer temps. That is the reasoning, and honestly in some oils the shearing happens within a thousand miles or so. I know my 20w50 Castrol V Twin did not last long before it sheared down in my unit construction air cooled bike.
Sorry if I came off short there. It's just that, with a cold blooded bike, 20w-50 seems too thick for a bike that doesn't call for it. But there are many who do use it in their V-Stars, so I'm sure there's no problem in using it. Somehow the Valvoline 20w-50 didn't seem too appealing to me though, maybe it's just because of how cheap it is at Walmart. Not that I think that its expense has anything to do with its quality, but I'd rather use Rotella T 15w-40 before I'd use Valvoline 20w-50.
On another note, as I mentioned slightly once before, I was also eyeing the Mag 1 4T 10w-40 syn blend. I actually just put some of that in my quad (Yamaha Raptor 350) just to see how it works in that. If anything, my quad is harder on oil than my bike (due to how I ride them, as well as because my quad is worse on fuel dilution than my bike), and it'll be the test to see how it holds up. It was only 26 bucks for 6 quarts on Amazon, so I'd say it's not a bad price.