Motorcycle specific oil

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Originally Posted By: BigCahuna
I have a soft spot for British bikes . My first bike was a '69 Norton 750 Commando roadster. Fast bike handled good but had some design flaws. Undersized clutch and brake cables, mine would go thru at least 2 a season. Once broke a trans mainshaft, had to order one from the west coast took a month to get. Several electrical gremlins but nothing serious. For my first bike ,I loved it. Simple design you could work on yourself, and the price was fair.I also picked up a '71 650 BSA which was a fun around town bike.Not much to look at and wasn't a rocket ship but cheap and fun to knock around on.Those bikes had their own style and personality. Back in the day Triumphs were real popular and lots of them around. I see a few here and there these days.But nowadays there are more brands to chose from so, I guess that cuts into their market share.I wasn't aware they made a 1600 twin tho.,,


Yeah Triumph now makes the 1600 and 1700 Thunderbird and Thunderbird Storm. Great bikes for $13-14k

http://www.triumphmotorcycles.com/motorcycles/range/cruisers/thunderbird
 
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Doog I gotta ask you, how is the vibration level on your bike?. Both the parallel twins I owned would put your hands and legs to sleep if ridden on the highway for a short distance. There was nothing wrong with them, just the nature of the beasts I guess.,,
 
I have the Thunderbirds' smaller brother, the Speedmaster. That parallel twin is really smooth and vibration free. I have ridden the bigger Thunderbirds and find them smooth as well. Only thing is that is one WIDE engine. With forward controls I felt pretty splayed out compared to my smaller Triumph. Really nicely engineered bikes
 
Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: Tay
Guys, way out of topic...


Are you the topic police?


nope. isn't keeping in topic basic etiquette? do we really need one to do that?
 
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Originally Posted By: Tay

... isn't keeping in topic basic etiquette?


Yes, it is...

I thought very seriously about the Thunderbird, but at the time the dealer could never seem to get one in stock, and if one did, it was silver, and spoken for. As for 'bike' oils, I never use them, and have never seen a need, nor had any issues not using them.
 
Originally Posted By: BigCahuna
Doog I gotta ask you, how is the vibration level on your bike?. Both the parallel twins I owned would put your hands and legs to sleep if ridden on the highway for a short distance. There was nothing wrong with them, just the nature of the beasts I guess.,,


It is about 50% of a TC88A and 40% of a TC88B it is counter balanced so you get the same buzz at 70-80 like a TC-B series motor but it is less. It is not enough to make me install iso grips or pegs yet.
 
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Originally Posted By: Robenstein
I have the Thunderbirds' smaller brother, the Speedmaster. That parallel twin is really smooth and vibration free. I have ridden the bigger Thunderbirds and find them smooth as well. Only thing is that is one WIDE engine. With forward controls I felt pretty splayed out compared to my smaller Triumph. Really nicely engineered bikes


I know...it is an 800+ lb beast. The gas tank is wider than the engine. Plus I put dresser bars on.
 
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Originally Posted By: BigCahuna
So the question is, does motorcycle or Hdeo oils prevent rust and is oil foaming bad?


1. yes, like all oils
2. No, my Sportster would foam up the tank regularly. Never an issue. Syn3 20w50 would foam a lot.
 
It would be interesting to see some long term results from using 15w40 in a Harley. I have a 2007 Dyna Street Bob and would like to get away from the 10 bucks per quart m/c specific oil.
 
Page 12 and no one's mentioned yet (or maybe I missed it) that motorcycle specific oils often are JASO MA or MA2 compliant for compatibility with the wet clutches in motorcycles that share the engine oil to the clutch and gears. Friction modifiers as found in automotive oil will cause a wet clutch to slip (when you don't want it to).

The factory fill on my Duc was a 10W40 (JASO MA) oil, at 1st service the dealer put in Spectro Platinum 4 15W50 (JASO MA2) and I have to say the engine was smoother on the factory fill and so was the clutch.
 
Alot of oils claim to be compliant, just like they claim to meet API standards. The thing is there is no API standard to which motorcycle oil must comply with. That's why there is no API symbol on bottles of motorcycle oil. You have to go on faith that the oils actually meet the specs as claimed.I think there would be more reports of clutch slippage, if there was a real problem. And those that claim their clutch slipped by using a certain brand of oil either race their bikes [read abuse] or the clutch is really just out of adjustment.,
 
Just finished a 3k run of Rotella 15w40 and switched back to Castrol 10w-50. The Rotella seemed to do fine, with the only difference being shift quality. The shifting with Rotella was OK and didn't deteriorate over the OCI, but the Castrol makes shifts quieter and so smooth that I can't feel any resistance from the shifter and it doesn't deteriorate over 3k miles either. It is especially impressive the Castrol can make a Triumph Tiger 1050 transmission smooth.

I have a year left on my warranty and Triumph specs 10w40 or 15w50 motorcycle specific semi-syn or full-syn and recommends the Castrol 10w50, so I'm going to finish my stock of Castrol 10w50 that I got for $6.50/qt as a "used" product from amazon, then try Mag 1 semi-syn 10w40 motorcycle oil.

After the warranty is up I intend to also try the Mobil 1 15w50 and Rotella 5w40 pick a winner from the Mobil 1, Mag 1, and Rotella offerings.
 
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