motorcycle oil vs. atv oil vs. auto vs. marine....and going back to

[boulder_adv_rider]

I think the marketing hype continues to get even better. I see companies like Valvoline are marketing ATV oil as opposed to motorcycle oil as opposed to car oil as opposed to Marine oil... I just got off the phone with NAPA to see which oils it carried: Valvoline MC oil. $6/qt and no volume/case discount. So that's $24/gallon or 42 gallons x $24 = $1,008/barrel! And here we thought the Arabs were gouging us! Makes gasoline look cheap at $4/gal. Of course, the NAPA salesman couldn't tell me why $1,008 is justified but kindly referred me to the Valvoline techline (800) 354-8957. Something tells me on the other end of the line I'll find a petrolpsychologist [sic] who is desperately trained to convince anyone MC is critical, must-use and most definitely worth $1,008/gallon. Anyway, this link (below) dates back to 1994, and I think it is still relevant today--which is why I'm posting it. I will note that those running higher mileage between oil changes and/or more demanding conditions might benefit from synthetic oil vs. standard oil because of synthetic's ability to retain it's viscosity rating longer. Again, if you don't like changing oil frequently, synthetic might be better. Of course, moto synthetic vs. auto...well, all expensive so I'd stick with the moto blend. For me, 10W-40 API SM class (as per my owner's manual) seems to work fine. But understand I'm not here to sell anything nor convince anyone of anything. Rather I'm sharing my experience and some info. Right now, my cost per oil change is $10 ($7 in 10W-40 Pennzoil and $3 filter) vs. one quart of any moto-specific oil ranges from $6 to $10/qt so average $8 * 2.5 = $20 excluding filter. Of course, people claim moto-specific oils benefit wet clutches and transmission gears (won't pit critical gears? I find this laughable as I've never seen a pitted gear with any brand of 10W-40). But most importantly is the results from experience which support my choice to continue using standard auto oil with the latest/greatest API rating which is SM. Using API SM 10W-40 Pennzoil (so far 3 oil changes and last one without changing filter) showed negligible wear in my new EBC clutch plates (heavy duty springs installed) over 6k rigorous miles. I just measured the clutch plates and EBC friction plates (for wear and warp) and they actually measure very close to new ones. Incredible, yes. Of course, the last 4k miles on this ultra-ride were hard on everything (trip ended when valve clearances closed to nothing...I DO NOT recommend resurfacing intake valves). At one point riding down to Butch Cassidy's hide-out (those that have been here know trails like this are hard on the clutch), my 20k-mile, worn clutch cable proved because out of adjustment. The clutch started slipping bad until I adjusted it (noticing broken strands of cable...yikes!). After the adjustment, I was back in business and today just replaced it with a Motion Pro Terminator...it feels great! The point I'm making here is I'm hard on the clutch and normally I get no slippage. I do wheelies, shots...the works and I don't notice a difference. Furthermore the slipping that occurred with the out-of- adjustment apparently caused no detectable wear or damage. This is enough proof for me. Of course, your results may very. http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.htm