Use of Rotella T in motorcycles.... no bueno

Discussion in 'Mechanics Garage' started by Lazy in AZ, Oct 1, 2010.

  1. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    Sorry, fixed.
     
  2. ZEN biker

    ZEN biker New Member

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    blackstone gives free kits and only charges $25 -> so worth it imo!
    any desiel grade oil is safe for manual transmissions. most of the time you would just use gear oil (80 or 90w) but it has been proven (i will find the link) that there is no ill effects from using desiel grade oils in manual transmissions. Now I know some will argue this, but if you live in a colder climate, then this makes sense and does work. Just dont try to use it in an automatic, a transmatic or hydromatic transmission, they will fail
     
  3. TheEnd

    TheEnd New Member

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    I found the following an interesting read Motorcycle Oils vs. Automotive Oils , with test conducted by Dr. John C. Woolum, Professor of Physics at California State University.

    Using 3 automotive oils and 2 motorcycle oils and the same motorcycle, testing the shearing/viscosity at 800mi & 1500mi. The Honda HP4 users here may want to consider there choice of oils after reading the article. Both the motorcycle oils tested rated lower than the 3 Automotive oils, even lower than the Castrol GTX Mineral oil & Mobil 1 synthetic which topped the list. Jump to the bottom of the linked post if you just want to see the results.

    I hope this satisfies tinkerinWstuff's thirst for test results.
     
  4. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    that's awesome. but doesn't satisfy my thirst to give Lazy shit for promising tests and then disappearing. :thumbsup:
     
  5. Dukiedook

    Dukiedook New Member

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    Well, his name ain't lazy fer nuthin'! :tongue:
     
  6. orion3814

    orion3814 New Member

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    Hmmm rotella shear hmmm. I guess I better go change my rotella that I have 150k miles on in my big truck.

    That being said I say horse shit on royal splurgple rep trying to sell his snake oil. I do oil analasys of my oil every 20 k miles and all I have had to add is 1 gallon in 150 k miles. Yes I drive a semi and .the cams, air pump, water pump, fuel pump, and power steering pump are all gear driven so don't tell me about sheer. I also run a west coast bypass filter on top of a centrafugal filter. My oil is as clean as the day I put it in.. and that's with 150 k miles on it
     
  7. texvfr750r

    texvfr750r New Member

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    I found this thread googling. I have been putting Rotella in my bikes for about ten years now. My oldest bike (in avatar) had had mayne a half dozen oils in it over 21 years. Started with Honda mineral oil, then Honda synthetic, then back to Honda mineral oil (some of your may remember the big test at MCN where the Hondaline synthetic came in dead last),then Rotella T minerla oil, now Rotella T synthetic. Never much detectable difference at all, except the bike shifted noticeably worse on Mobil 1 (the original recipe). I am down to about two thousand miles per year (or less) now on this bike (total mileage 46K+), so it gets annual oil changes only, but our other bikes also run just fine on Rotella.
     
  8. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    I refuse to endorse any of corporate Americas garbage that no one needs, and if i did try Rotella, i'd never admit it !

    All anyone can say is " I used Rotella, and my engine didn't blow up." Is that a serious recommendation ?
     
  9. bitterpil

    bitterpil New Member

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    This thread is still happening? Crap! Rotella Dino and Synth have been used in bikes for years.
    It's good oil decent price. It's your bike, your wallet,your decision. If you like it and know anything about oil use it. If you don't like and know anything about oil, don't use it.

    If you don't know anything about oil, start reading. Lots of good info in at least a thousand other theads on this site and others. Form an opinion and start our own oil thread. :cool:
     
  10. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    oil, the forum equivalent of religion and politics. liquid stupidity.





    .
     
  11. Metallican525

    Metallican525 New Member

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    If you don't know anything about oil, you should OBVIOUSLY start a new thread on your favorite forum and ask which kind is best. Geeeeeeez guys, use the ol noggin for more than a helmet rack eh.................:crazy::potstir:
     
  12. Deadsmiley

    Deadsmiley Member

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    That dude that was a courier in the UK put 400k MILES on his VFR before he replaced the engine. When asked what oil he used he said whatever was cheapest and he changed it every week.

    Maybe he would have gotten 800k miles on it if he had used motorcycle oil. Come on you pussies. Don't stop now! Fight about it! WIN! WIN! WIN!
     
  13. vfr2k2

    vfr2k2 New Member

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    Is that lil guy at the end of your post stirrin' the Linseed Oil. What grade is that? Ten penney fitty. I hear that stuff'l port and polish heads in less than 1000 miles?
     
  14. Michael E

    Michael E New Member

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    Fortunately, it is a bump worthy thread. I too wonder what happened to the op's tests.
     
  15. Dukiedook

    Dukiedook New Member

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    Vanished in the intarweb ether...
     
  16. Lazy in AZ

    Lazy in AZ New Member

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    Ever start one of those threads you wish you could just delete and pretend happened? :tongue:

    Well, it's been a helluva long time since I've been on here, and I apologize for that. Can't believe ya'll were still chatting about this all that time! LOL

    That's exactly what I was shooting for back then was a full-on discussion to get down to the truth and cut through all the BS that the oil company rep was throwing at me. What got me back then was the 'fact sheet' that he had and several others that pretty much backed him up while at the same time saying that their oil was better than their oil. Yeah, you know the story already.

    I know that I seemed to have taken a side with the Royal Purple dude, but honestly I ran that crap through my VFR for one cycle and tossed it. I didn't notice any difference between it and Rotella other than the lack of the distinct odor that Rotella has and RP didn't.

    AND the fact that I never took the time to test any of the 3 oil changes that I'd done on her since the last post. Sorry guys, just too damn busy and had more important things to do.

    I will say that the last batch of oil I purchased was a racing oil that I took off of a small shop's shelf in a package deal after having them install a new front tire for me. Two gallons of oil and 9 oil filters that had a layer of dust on them so thick you could write on em. Bought the whole lot (can't remember the brand name) for $22 out the door! I'm out of oil, but I still got plenty of filters.

    I'll be heading out to venture for some oil here soon with the weather warming up. Not sure when, but I'll be riding her quite a bit this year if I have my way.

    Tink, I owe it to you and everyone else to run the comparison so I'll make you this promise. Seeing as I can't remember the brand of oil I have in her now, I'll dump this batch and run a full cycle (3k miles) on Rotella T. When I change that one out, I'll have it tested. Then I'll put a fresh batch of RP in her and run that for 3k miles as well. When I get the results back from each test I'll put 'em up here and we'll go apples to apples.

    It's going to be a while before this is settled, but I'm willing to play along and do this for several good quality oils (I'm not putting shoddy crude in my baby girl ya know), so if you have a brand of oil you'd like to see results on, I'll put it on the list of oils to try. That's the deal: 3k miles per cycle and a full analysis. If Rotella beats RP, then I'll retract every damn thing I've said so far AND I'll send the results to them (although I'm pretty sure they already know the answer that they're not telling us common folk).

    That's it. Just wanted to stop by and say "Thanks for the bump" earlier and sorry that I didn't reply. Kinda hectic running a moving company and taking care of a new addition to the family :biggrin:
     
  17. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    You have hit rock bottom if you're worried about what Tinkeringwithanalpassages thinks. He don't know any more than TC tells him, but then again, neither does Hillary Clinton.......do not give him your SS number.
     
  18. 34468 Randy

    34468 Randy Secret Insider

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    Well.....I just got older. I could have done something useful, like scrubbing toilets.

    I should have run the comparison test for everyone here before I retired. I could have had the results for three different oils in three months with the miles I put on. I have over 100,000 miles. I would be willing to bet I would have the same mileage on this thing regardless if I used Rotella (I don't) RP (I don't) Amisol (I don't) or whatever other popular oil out there.

    Has anyone done any research to determine what oil is the worse for your bike and if your bike did die as a result, exactly how dead did it get?
     
  19. FJ12rydertoo

    FJ12rydertoo Member

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    Be realistic and go 5,000 miles between oil changes. You could run Pennzoil 3,000 miles and it would work. :smile:
     
  20. Lazy in AZ

    Lazy in AZ New Member

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    I'd thought about that, and normally would put between 5,000 - 7,500 miles on my bike between changes. However with the amount of actual riding that I've been doing lately, that will take quite some time.

    BUT, if that's what the masses want to see the results window in, then I'll shoot for 5k+
     
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