All the nay sayers will tell you that car oil can't take the stresses imposed by motorcycle engines. That's bunk, todays  small and midsized cars engines are stressed far more that the average bike engine. A 4 cylinder engine in a midsized car or truck is pulling thousands of pounds of car, passengers, AC units, power steering pump, etc. It is also subjected to extra heat from the automatic transmission and AC unit. And that old thing about car oil can't take the sheering caused by the transmission gears------Really, well what about my Honda Civic that uses 10w-30 car oil in it's manual transmission. The car has 320,000 miles on it and the transmission oil has only been changed twice---and never had a transmission problem. A friend of mine bought an old ex-police Kawasaki 1000 with 90,000 miles of abuse heaped on it. He talked with the mechanic that services those bikes, and was told they used nothing but Castrol GTX 20-50 ( car oil ), and they only changed it every 4,000 miles. My friend has since put 35,000 additional miles on the bike, and uses the the same Castrol 20w-50 oil -----still runs great last I heard. OK, so now give the case for spending $8.00 on a qt of motorcycle oil.

shaZam!-stirrer.

Quote from: sledge on April 23, 2009, 06:01:36 PM
oh my goodness-stirrer.

Good point sledge, I never considered that.

what do you mean "car oil" it's called motor oil because it's all pretty much the same stuff, for motors.

.....here it comes 

I don't use car oil or motorcycle oil in my bike.  I use truck oil.   

Quote from: gsJack on April 23, 2009, 06:23:40 PM
I don't use car oil or motorcycle oil in my bike.  I use truck oil.   

That's even better gsjack----that's what I use.

Quote from: jrains89 on April 23, 2009, 06:08:16 PM
what do you mean "car oil" it's called motor oil because it's all pretty much the same stuff, for motors.

I didn't coin the term jrain, that's how most posters here refer to it.

I don't think it matters as much whether it's a car or bike engine as whether it's air-cooled or liquid-cooled.  Air-cooled engines are tough on oil because of the much higher temperatures involved.  Bikes like the GS have wet sumps so their transmissions and clutches also work to tear those oil molecules apart, unlike cars.  My bike seems to wear-out oil faster than my car, but does all that make me think $8/quart oil is in order?  

Hell, no!

I know oil color isn't the best indicator of when it needs to be changed, but I change it when it starts turning dark brown, which for me is right around 3,000 miles and twice a year.  I change the filter once every fall before I put it away for the winter.  I think regular oil and filter changes are much more important than whether you use synthetic, regular, car oil, truck oil, or oil formulated specifically for bikes.  As long as the right type of oil is used for the engine and it gets changed before it's black I don't think it makes a significant difference what you use.

People should be as careful about who they elect!

 

Quote from: bill14224 on April 23, 2009, 06:30:51 PM
I don't think it matters as much whether it's a car or bike engine as whether it's air-cooled or liquid-cooled.  Air-cooled engines are tough on oil because of the much higher temperatures involved.  Bikes like the GS have wet sumps so their transmissions and clutches also work to tear those oil molecules apart, unlike cars.  My bike seems to wear-out oil faster than my car, but does all that make me think $8/quart oil is in order?  

Hell, no!

I know oil color isn't the best indicator of when it needs to be changed, but I change it when it starts turning dark brown, which for me is right around 3,000 miles and twice a year.  I change the filter once every fall before I put it away for the winter.  I think regular oil and filter changes are much more important than whether you use synthetic, regular, car oil, truck oil, or oil formulated specifically for bikes.  As long as the right type of oil is used for the engine and it gets changed before it's black I don't think it makes a significant difference what you use.

People should be as careful about who they elect!

Bike engines wear out faster than car engines because they are turning anywhere from 2 to 4 times the RPMs of the car engine. A bike with 50,000 miles has turned over at least the equivalent of 100,000 car miles.

Its not that the car oil can't handle it.  The problem is that most car oils these days have friction modifying additives that actually make the oil slicker.  These additives will cause problems in the wet plate clutch that most motorcycles, including the GS, use.  Motorcycle specific oil dose'nt have these additives neither does a lot of regular automotive oils, just stay away from any oil that says "energy conserving."

Quote from: Critter on April 23, 2009, 06:48:56 PM
Its not that the car oil can't handle it.  The problem is that most car oils these days have friction modifying additives that actually make the oil slicker.  These additives will cause problems in the wet plate clutch that most motorcycles, including the GS, use.  Motorcycle specific oil dose'nt have these additives neither does a lot of regular automotive oils, just stay away from any oil that says "energy conserving."

I agree critter, that's why you should stick with the 10w-40 and 20w-50 oils, they don't have the friction modifiers.

Well really, it's been scientifically proven that if you don't put in royal purple your engine has a 60% chance of blowing up early.  I know this because one time I put in dino oil and my dog died the next day.

Quote from: gsJack on April 23, 2009, 06:23:40 PM
I don't use car oil or motorcycle oil in my bike.  I use truck oil.   

Yeah, it is all about the truck oil. How can you not love oil that comes in gallon containers when you ride a bike notorious for burning oil?

Tard Farm It.  As most everyone here knows this topic has been beat to death and it all could have been avoided with a little thing called a SEARCH.  There is absolutly nothing new in this oil thread then any other oil thread other then a few new names posting.   

Quote from: joshr08 on April 24, 2009, 04:46:23 AM
Tard Farm It.  As most everyone here knows this topic has been beat to death and it all could have been avoided with a little thing called a SEARCH.  There is absolutly nothing new in this oil thread then any other oil thread other then a few new names posting.   

Not true, none of the others have pointed out the fact that many of the Japanese car makers require the use of "car oil" in the manual transmissions of their cars. I was pointing out the misconception that many posters had about these oils not being able to handle the shear factor in bike transmissions.
As for tard farms josh, judging from some of your previous posts, I'm sure that's something you know a lot about.

ZZZZZZZZzzzz............ZZZZzzzzzzz!

Im going to play nice and only point out that your comparing your CAR transmission to your motorcycle and well they arent the same end of story.  and my other point is this everyone is going to run whatever motor lube they want.  just read the little book that came with the bike and go from there.  theres no reason for a 50 poster to have such an attitude about something that has been talked about so much that when a mod. sees anything dealing with oil other then i have an oil leak in the title it should be tard farmed ASAP.  Search the site and you will find alot of oil descussions and they all end the same way.  Everyone thinks they are right and nothing new ever comes of it.  Someone will start posting likes to amsoil studies or lucus studies and really they dont matter the studies are mostly done by the company and they arent going to come out and say well after testing both our competitors oil is better then our.

Quote from: joshr08 on April 24, 2009, 05:46:24 AM
Im going to play nice and only point out that your comparing your CAR transmission to your motorcycle and well they arent the same end of story.  and my other point is this everyone is going to run whatever motor lube they want.  just read the little book that came with the bike and go from there.  theres no reason for a 50 poster to have such an attitude about something that has been talked about so much that when a mod. sees anything dealing with oil other then i have an oil leak in the title it should be tard farmed ASAP.  Search the site and you will find alot of oil descussions and they all end the same way.  Everyone thinks they are right and nothing new ever comes of it.  Someone will start posting likes to amsoil studies or lucus studies and really they dont matter the studies are mostly done by the company and they arent going to come out and say well after testing both our competitors oil is better then our.

Correct, car transmissions and bike transmissions are not the same. Car transmission are under much heavier loads and stresses than bike transmissions, and even they don't shear car oils to any great degree. A lot of people are still on the fence about what kind of oil to use, I'm trying to put to rest the notion that you need to spend a lot of money on oil. If I were you I would ignore a thread that irritates or bores you, that's what I do with the endless post inquiring about adjusting valves----like that hasn't been done to death.
You have to be patient with us josh, we can't all come up with new and interesting threads like displaying photos of His and Hers helmets.