Sport  Rider (edit) is publishing a series of very good articles on motorcycle oil. The first one was last month. Rush out and see if you can find it, the new issue is on the way. The second part of the series will have some real scientific test data in it:


EXCLUSIVE!! OIL COMPARISON TEST, PART TWO

We find out if there really is a difference between motor oils using a barrage of scientific tests to get real, quantifiable results

Spectrographic analysis charts: What and how much of various additives are in each oil, and what that means to you
Heat stability/Aging test: Subjecting the oils to extreme heat to see how well they withstand the abuse your motor would dish out
Dyno test: Will using motorcycle-specific synthetic racing oils give you more power? We find out!
Four-Ball Wear Test: We pit motorcycle synthetic oils against a regular petroleum car oil to see if there is a difference in protection
Viscosity shear test: Can off-the-shelf petroleum car oils perform as well as a synthetic motorcycle oils in the harsh environment of a motorcycle transmission?

Sport Rider magazine comes out every OTHER month. I have the issue with the first part of that article also and was thinking maybe I'd scan it and just maybe Kerry might host it on his site. Kerry?

make sure he includes "please don't sue me for reprinting without permission"  

Hmmm....good point.

So far, I think the only scanned stuff I have hosted has been pages from parts catalogs.  I can't imagine the catalog folks getting upset that I'm spreading the word to potential customers.

But eating into magazine sales might be a different ballgame....

Perhaps someone could write up a "digest" of the salient points from the articles?  Reviews/abstracts don't violate copyright, do they?

Are they still selling a 3 month old magazine. I dont see that as a potential issue. Well they re run it but most likely not.
Cool.
Srinath.

I just have the newest issue and the 1st part.  They cram so much more information into those articles its WAY more than I ever cared to know about oil :lol:

good stuff though

maybe u can scan part 2 when part 3 comes out?  that wouldnt be stealing sales from the magazine then would it?

Why would they compair dino auto oils to synthetic motorcycle oil but not dino to dino and synthetic to synthetic? Already sounding fishy to me.

You can still get the August 2003 issue (part 1 of story) of Sport Rider if you're interested:

http://www.the-direct-source.com/prodinfo.asp?number=SPORT-R%20AUG03&variation=&aitem=14&mitem=21

I got that link off of the sportrider.com 'Contact Us' page, so it should be legit.

I'm surprised that no one saw the 2-part Oil Investigation in both this years Jan and Feb Motorcycle Consumer News.  The data was extensive, and no one oil tested out best in every category.  However, certain names kept finishing high over and over.  Mobil-1 15/50 did very well, as did Castrol Synthetic, 10/30 and 10/40...also Amsoil and Motul did well.  I think almost ANY of the top-quality oils will do the job and protect the engine more than adequately, and that the really important thing is checking the oil every few hundred miles for level and quality (color) and regular changes.  Nuff said...gotta go ride.

I'd love to see that. MC News doesn't worry so much about about pissing off advertisers. Kerry's observation about the dino car oil against the very pricey motorcycle synthetics not being what we need to know is very correct.

Any chance of a scan of the MC News articles, privately at least?

Quote from: KevinCKerry's observation about the dino car oil against the very pricey motorcycle synthetics not being what we need to know is very correct.

Gee, you remember past threads better than _I_ do.  Did I really say that?    It must have been a while back!

Ooops, 'twas the snowman!

Motorcycle Consumer News did a three part oil investigation back in 2000 also.  I only have installments I & II because after sending me about three issues out of a one year subscription they quit sending them to me. The check was already cashed & complaints got nowhere, so I'm not a real fan of theirs.
I can dig it out & try to summarize it if folks are interested.  I don't think scanning copyrighted material is a good idea.  I'm not real pleased with their customer service, but still, I'm not ticked off enough to break the law...