OIL in the UK

[el barto]

Evening all,

I trust you're all having a pleasant Friday night. I thought this topic could be a good resource as products on offer here tend to differ somewhat to the USA, and I'm also curious. What oil is everyone using for their old bikes, or just bikes in general? The Americans seem to swear by Rotella; as far as I'm aware we can't get here it here.

I'm using Castol 10w40, it's fine.

:3

 

[beachcomber]

Evening all,

I trust you're all having a pleasant Friday night. I thought this topic could be a good resource as products on offer here tend to differ somewhat to the USA, and I'm also curious. What oil is everyone using for their old bikes, or just bikes in general? The Americans seem to swear by Rotella; as far as I'm aware we can't get here it here.

I'm using Castol 10w40, it's fine.

:3

Depends on the bike ?? Old Brit bikes [ and others of the era ] liked Monograde oils, ie a straight 30 / 40 sae.

I used to run my "old" bikes on Morris' Tractor oil .......30 or 40 grade [ Summer / Winter ] - race bikes on Castrol R. Morris' oil was [ is? ] cheap as chips and I NEVER had a lubrication related issue.

Oil is oil and as long as it complies with the relevant SAE specs - is fit for purpose. Any expensive additives that claim "cleaner engine", "more mpg", "smelling of Roses", " Gosh it's Green" ....... are above and beyond what's required - and no doubt 2 or 3 times the price.

 

[DohcBikes]

earl

 

[el barto]

Depends on the bike ?? Old Brit bikes [ and others of the era ] liked Monograde oils, ie a straight 30 / 40 sae.

I used to run my "old" bikes on Morris' Tractor oil .......30 or 40 grade [ Summer / Winter ] - race bikes on Castrol R. Morris' oil was [ is? ] cheap as chips and I NEVER had a lubrication related issue.

Oil is oil and as long as it complies with the relevant SAE specs - is fit for purpose. Any expensive additives that claim "cleaner engine", "more mpg", "smelling of Roses", " Gosh it's Green" ....... are above and beyond what's required - and no doubt 2 or 3 times the price.

Thanks Beachcomber. I guess oil is oil; call it the obsessive compulsive in me but I like to know the what and why, and in this case I know very little about the what and the why because I'm a kook. ;D

 

[Steve-E]

Agree with everything Beachcomber said. Just put some SAE40 in a 1967 Norton, my BMW Oilhead uses 20w/50.
The majority of the bikes I've owned/worked on use 10w/40. Something I only found out recently is you should use Jaso approved oil with a wet clutch. That said I used Comma Eurolite for years without any problems, and it's not Jaso approved. So I guess you pays your money, and takes your choice.

 

[beachcomber]

Oil is oil ......... back in the 'late 60's [ after I finished with 2 and 3 wheels ] I used to race a supercharged Renault R8 Gordini. My oil sponsor was Valvoline and I was treated to a tour of their UK plant together with one of their techie guys. He reccomended a Monograde oil and I was happy to use it.

He was very scathing about "additives", stating that a "pure" blend was always superior to anything that contained additives.

I later switched to Castrol sponsorship, but stayed with my tried and tested "R" vegetable oil blend. Again a straight monograde.

My last racing foray with oil sponsorship was with a Blown / Injected / methanol Comp Altered - this time Quaker State providing the oil sponsorship and again a monograde - albeit 70 SAE grade.

In all my racing career [ 2, 3 and 4 wheels ] I NEVER had a mechanical failure that was down to lubrication problems.

 

[Steve-E]

Bought a very tidy NTV600 in 1996 with 12,000 miles on the clock. Used it as a Dispatch bike for 4 years or so.
It ended up covering 312.000 miles with minimal problems, still don't know if it was down to using Eurolite oil.