Im a skinflint

[bulldog]

I change the oil on my Yamaha quite often and want to do the same on my newly aquired monster. The recommended Shell advance ultra is a tad expensive. What oil is everyone using??

[Pedro]

Rock Oil Semi-Synthetic, about £20 for 4 litres

[SimonH]

The advantage of synthetic oil is not that it lubricates better, but that it lubricates better for longer. Petroleum based lubricating oil starts to degrade fairly quickly (essentially the long chain molecules start to break into shorter molecules) and on a modern engine needs changing at about 3,000 mile intervals. You can improve things with additives like detergents. The other problem is that your 900 motor is air cooled and these run hotter that liquid cooled engines. This tends to accelerate the degradation process.

Basically any good quality 10w40 or 15w50 oil will work in your engine at the appropriate temperature range. If you use a synthetic like Silkolene or Motul then you can extend the change interval.

I run a 748sps motor in my monster and change the (synthetic) oil yearly. That's about 12,000 miles. Previously I had a 750 air cooled motor and did the same. It was fine.

Matter for you really.

[JMo]

I use Putoline Syntec 4 (fully synthetic) in my Monster, and tend to change it every service/year which is typically 6000-8000 miles these days... however, I imagine it pretty much the same price as the Shell stuff.

On the other hand, I change the oil in my XR400 every 1000 miles, and so use the cheaper 'synthetic fortified' DX4 oil - half the price at around £15 for 4 litres - and it seems just as good... if yours is an older bike and you change the oil more regularly, I'd go with that...

xxx

[slob]

Rock Oil Synthesis4

[Zimbo]

On the road I use Rock Oil Guardian semi synthetic, changed every 3000 miles, always have. Since I'm doing a lot more track days now it gets Rock Oil fully synthetic.

[MotoNik]

I've been using the rock oil semi snyth too - over 24k on my bike now, and I've been changing it every 3k - still doesn't use a drop of oil.

cheers,
Nik