Synthethic vs Normal Oil - 95 ST1100

Sorry for drifting off subject.

Back to original poster.
I think a lot of people use Synthetics because they think it is better.
These things are built tough, so not that critical.

To be safe, look at what long term riders use.
Check out this thread that includes posts from Alan Hunt about his 300,000 mile 1992 ST1100.

https://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?p=397180#post397180

"As far as maintenance I do all of it and roughly follow most of the important scheduled items but I'm not anal about doing everything the books says. Regular gas (Chevron), Mobile 1 every 8-10K, K&N air filter, various oil filter brands, coolant/brake fluid flush every year, fork oil 1-2 times a year. Nothing special required...its a Honda!"

Tim, I made you a vendor on the site. Sorry I didn't catch that sooner but that should give you some added exposure.

I pretty much have run Rotella-T synthetic in my bikes since my '01 Wing, I've tried other MC specific oils from time to time but I can't tell the difference and I really doubt I'll ever wear out a motorcycle.

Come to think of it, I've never seen a case of a motorcycle engine failure due to the oil being used. I've 'heard' of oil-related clutch failures...just never seen one on this or any of the other MC sites I've visited in the past few years. Just wondering if there are many documented.

I'm back in. What about the warranty? I went back and read my 2006 owners manual, the MCN oil test article from 2003, the Sport Rider oil test article, (looked like a direct quote from the MCN article) and other articles.

This time I read what is there instead of what I wanted to read into it. Wish I could scan and post but in short do we need to run JASO MA oil to keep it in warranty? My owners manual has JASO MA listed.

It's a shame that for oil to meet JASO MA it actually needs to be less oily, actually have some friction for the clutch.

Sorry Tim, that's 1 goldwing report, I've heard of more wing frame failures than that. I'm sure I can google just about anything on the net and find tons of stuff and a mechanic's 'story' doesn't interest me.

If I go by the information posted on just this site about members on this site. A site where many of the members are considered high-mileage riders, I've yet to see a report of an engine failure due to oil.. .if there is one, I may have missed it but I think it would have generated a lot of conversation.

The only major issues I've heard about here are related to clutches and a clutch is very vulnerable to 'how' you ride more so than an engine is.

Oil is like tires, seats, gas, etc, ... get what you feel comfortable with as long as it meets the minimum requirements stated by Honda... okay, I'll pass on their minimum requirements for a seat because they were just a layer of vinyl shy of a board.

Tim,

Are you implying an oil that meets federal standards for oil and meets the manufacturer's warranties would break down to sludge within the factory recommended change interval?
And at the same time are you implying that Amsoil would not under the same circumstances?
Unless you are claiming that Amsoil is *miracle* oil I don't see how your implications can be correct.

Mark

I have been sing Redline for many years. It is a Polyol Ester based synthetic that is a better synthetic bas stock than most other Synthetic oils. A Synthetic oil is good to run in the ST because the engine and gearbox share the same lubricant. The gears meshing together shear down molecules in conventional petroleum lubricants but the Synthetics are mostly immune to the shearing problem. Another advantage to Synthetics is the low evaporation rate and the TBM is low so acid formation is lower so your engine is protected from corrosive action and stays much cleaner inside.

Haven't been on here for a while and hate to start off kicking a dead horse but it may be of interest to someone,the oils you guys are arguing and stressing out about with all the mumbo jumbo about wet clutches and gear shearing are approved
by eaton,allison and others for use in class 8 truck trannys both standard(which have gears) and automatics(which have wet clutches).
We have trucks with gross weights ranging from 80,000 to over 120,000 Lbs.running allison automatics and 10w40 motor oil with,if I remember correctly, SJ api rating (been awhile since I read the service manual)is approved. However the shorter service interval makes it actually more expensive than running Transyn or Quatrasyn which are both full syn. atf.
Theres nothing magical or mysterious about oil,engines or wet clutches.Read your owners manual,buy a brand you can trust,change it no later than your supposed to and don't worry about it. There's more important things in life.Like which air filter is best!

I have a 1990 ST1100 and I am curious as to how many miles you should go between oil or oil/filter changes. I have a workshop manual which says 12000km or approx. 7500 miles. I have also been told not to leave it more than 4000 miles to do an oil and filter change. I did an oil and filter change when i bought the bike last year and I used a Hi-Flo oil filter and 10w40 Motul semi synthetic oil

You'll get lots of opinions on this one...
8000 miles (your manual said 7500miles) on dino oil.
You used semi-synth... I'd go 10,000.

YMMV

Some experts say the trans gears degrade the additive package over time. So, 7.5K miles may be a good time to change oil, synthetic or not.

Don't worry about "energy / resource conserving ". No such animal for the heavier grades that will be used in you ST1100, like 5W-40 , 10W-40 , 10W-50 , etc.

BTW, Based on lab tests, a really good mineral oil is Castol GTX 10W-40 .

A lot of Riders use a non JASO-MA or MB oils without clutch slipping.

Digging up an old thread to ask a question on the oil change subject,

I last changed the oil in Nov 2015, only done 1000 miles since, bike is stored indoors with no extremes of temperature, should I change the oil now or run her for another 3000 miles and then change oil and filter?

or should I freshen her up now, oil only or oil and filter change? thanks.

It's difficult to predict how your oil may have degraded over time.
How were the miles travelled done? Long trip, short trips? Have you been running it up as well, i.e. periods of running on choke etc.
Remember oil and filters are cheap, engines ain't.
If it was me, I'd change it but having said that the other view is that it's not an overly techy engine, what the hell give it a whirl.
Hope it helps.
Upt'North.

Thanks, I'm not sure what to do, most of those miles would have been 50+ mile trips anyway, when I do take her out I usually stretch her legs a bit, I have 2 other bikes and the St doesn't get used much anymore.
I suppose it won't make a lot of difference anyway, by the time this bike hits 100k it's going to be along time away at the rate I'm going

Every recommendation I've seen says that short trips are harder on oil than long trips - because the oil and engine does not get hot enough to drive off the products of combustion (water). These suggestions also say that you should change the oil every 6 months or year (I'm not sure of the time period, it must be the latter) and your oil is a couple of years old.

I tend not to worry about oil changes, because I do my cars every 3500 to 4000 miles and that works out to spring and fall oil changes. I change my bike oil ever fall - that has been way under Honda's recommendation of every 8K miles.

But, and here is the big but, as Upt'North said, oil is cheap, engines are not. And oil failures are incredibly difficult to pinpoint as the cause of engine failure (excepting obvious lack of lubrication due to low oil pressure). I've heard people brag that they drove such and such a car for 75K miles on the original oil that came in the engine - only adding some when the level dropped. The bragging part was no engine repairs in that time period. My point is that you can get away with all sorts of short cuts on maintenance and most of the time there will be no obvious problem - or a subtle problem that can be attributed to a variety of factors. If bad oil caused increased wear and the engine consumed a quart of oil every say, 1500 miles, could anyone correctly identify the cause of this wear? Absent periodic oil analysis, probably not.

In the end, its your choice.

BaldyJohnny said:

I have a 1990 ST1100 and I am curious as to how many miles you should go between oil or oil/filter changes. I have a workshop manual which says 12000km or approx. 7500 miles. I have also been told not to leave it more than 4000 miles to do an oil and filter change. I did an oil and filter change when i bought the bike last year and I used a Hi-Flo oil filter and 10w40 Motul semi synthetic oil

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Not familiar with Motul semi synthetic oil, synthetic oils can go 5-7k or more. It should not have or at least very little Molybdenum in the oil, bad for wet clutches.

I just put shell rotella T-6 5/40 synthetic in my st1300. I use regular Dino rotella 15/40 in my gl1000. If a bike has carburetors I worry about gasoline contamination. Many carbs leak gas into crankcase diluting the oil. I don't go more than 1000 miles on my gl1000 and FJ 1100 between changes for that reason. My change interval will be much further on my ST1300.

If you really want to find out how your oil is doing, send a sample out for testing. That would be definitive. In the States, it cost about ( 20 - 30 ) USD.

I would be more concerned about the condition of the filter element after three years.

If the oil still looks good by testing, you can always change only the filter.

Yeah I reckon it would cost me more here to test the oil than what the oil and filter change would cost, I last changed it Nov '15 so that's 16 months ago, not 3 years, suppose I'll just change it to be on the safe side though.

STay froSTy said:

I own a 01' 1100 standard and have been running mobil 1 4T full synthetic for the last 50,000 miles. Standard oil change per manual is every 8000 so I bumped it to 10,000. I found when I switched from dino to synthetic that the shifting became smoother. At 60,000 miles on the bike she uses about 1/8 of a quart over the 10,000 mile interval.

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Ditto on the shifting. I noticed that with Honda GN4 shifting was a bit iffy after the oil had 3000 miles on it. I switched to Mobil 1 and later Amsoil and never had the problems again.

yuergenb said:

Thanks for your help guys. There seems to be a consensus. Safe riding.

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Change synth oil every 3000 miles? When the manufacturer recommends 8000 for conventional?

I can see you need my help here.

First of all how many miles on your bike?