Does anyone use Royal Purple?

[BowlingSS]

Does anyone use Royal Purple in their XS11? I am rebuilding the XS11 I just got and wanted to know who uses RP. If not what does everyone use?

Thanks.
Bill

[bikerphil]

Yes, RP gear oil in the final drive and middle drive is ok. I wouldn't use it (motor oil) in the crankcase if it is synthetic, NG for the wet clutch.

[BowlingSS]

Yes, RP gear oil in the final drive and middle drive is ok. I wouldn't use it (motor oil) in the crankcase if it is synthetic, NG for the wet clutch.

Thanks for the info. What do you use in the crankcase?

Bill

[crazy steve]

Use a 20w40 or 20W50 non-synthetic and/or without friction modifiers. You can get motorcycle-specific oils from various brands without the modifiers (more $$), or some 'house brand' oils (usually much less expensive) that won't have the modifiers. I've used the O'Reillys 'house brand' 20W50 with good results. Look at the API seal on the label; this will have the oil weight in the center, and a circle around the weight. The top of the circle will have the API rating, the bottom should be empty. If it says 'fuel saving' or anything in the lower half of the circle, the oil has friction modifiers and will foul up the wet clutch....

[BowlingSS]

Use a 20w40 or 20W50 non-synthetic and/or without friction modifiers. You can get motorcycle-specific oils from various brands without the modifiers (more $$), or some 'house brand' oils (usually much less expensive) that won't have the modifiers. I've used the O'Reillys 'house brand' 20W50 with good results. Look at the API seal on the label; this will have the oil weight in the center, and a circle around the weight. The top of the circle will have the API rating, the bottom should be empty. If it says 'fuel saving' or anything in the lower half of the circle, the oil has friction modifiers and will foul up the wet clutch....

Thanks. We have an O'Reilly's right down the street.

Bill

[Bonz]

I have had mucho numbers of motorcycles where at one time or another I ran synthetic motor oil. Most have made similar or a whole lot more power and torque than an XS1100 ever has. Clutch material and springs are not inherently different between these bikes, between manufacturers or between era's of the 1980's, 1990's, and up to/including today.

With respect, NEVER any clutch slippage with synthetic oil, and I will place $$ on it that a properly functioning and proper condition XS1100 clutch will not slip with a synthetic oil for motorcycles.

Now, since the XS calls for oil changes every 2500 miles, regular motor oil works great and the cost of synthetic is not worth it to most guys here, and thus not many run synthetic. But it won't make a clutch slip.

Let the fur fly! LOL...

[Prisoner6]

Does anyone use Royal Purple in their XS11? I am rebuilding the XS11 I just got and wanted to know who uses RP. If not what does everyone use?

Thanks.
Bill

For motor oil use, I agree with bikerphil and crazy steve.

Conventional Valvoline motorcycle-specific (or Castrol GTX) in 20W-50 viscosity ... these are both good choices.

As far as gear oil, you can use Royal Purple synthetic gear oil (75W-140) in the middle/final drives.

Personally, I prefer to use Redline synthetic gear oil in 75W-140 ... and friction modifiers are a good thing in the gear oil.

Extra slipperiness helps keep the friction, and therefore the heat, down in these old mid/final drives.

[Rasputin]

I have had mucho numbers of motorcycles where at one time or another I ran synthetic motor oil. Most have made similar or a whole lot more power and torque than an XS1100 ever has. Clutch material and springs are not inherently different between these bikes, between manufacturers or between era's of the 1980's, 1990's, and up to/including today.

With respect, NEVER any clutch slippage with synthetic oil, and I will place $$ on it that a properly functioning and proper condition XS1100 clutch will not slip with a synthetic oil for motorcycles.

Now, since the XS calls for oil changes every 2500 miles, regular motor oil works great and the cost of synthetic is not worth it to most guys here, and thus not many run synthetic. But it won't make a clutch slip.

Let the fur fly! LOL...

Not trying to make any fur fly, but I have never had clutch issues with synthetic either. I believe that what you prime the frictions with will be what one should use.
I did however have issue with all the leak points that synthetic could find. So I changed it out and went back to dino oil. Changed it all to 20/50 and oil usage, valve noise, etc all went away.
I did not use synth for a long time but I had no issues from using it.

[jetmechmarty]

I'm in the same camp as Bonz and Rasputin. Synthetic oil has never bothered my XS1100 clutch. I have only used motorcyle specific varieties of synthetic oil.

[DiverRay]

It's not the synthetic per se, it's the FRICTION MODIFIERS in almost all synthetics that are the problem. Find a synthetic without the modifiers and your good to go. JMHO

[jetmechmarty]

Ray,
I believe that is the case with motorcycle specific synthetic.oils.

[Bonz]

That is the point that has been brought up a number of times, the friction modifiers are the source of problem. And synthetic oils that most of us would agree are the basis for our understanding of synthetic oils, are not synthetic at all. Which has always confounded me as to how synthetic oils cause clutch slippage, or should not be used for break in, etc. Myth.

Most synthetic oils are based on high grade petroleum base stocks. Mobil 1, Castrol, Valvoline, all those are no more man made than Dino SuperTech, other than they have been refined to a high level so they are comprised of "the best of the best" Dino oil for lack of any simpler way to say it. True Story.

[motoman]

Well, with all that hype and snake-oil('motorcycle specific') I'll keep using dino20-50w in the bike. It doesn't seem to miss the unobtanium 20-40w of yesteryear I USED to use in it, and after all these decades......if it happens to go on the low side on a LD ride, slippery and conventional.......good enough for me.

[jwhughes3]

That is the point that has been brought up a number of times, the friction modifiers are the source of problem. And synthetic oils that most of us would agree are the basis for our understanding of synthetic oils, are not synthetic at all. Which has always confounded me as to how synthetic oils cause clutch slippage, or should not be used for break in, etc. Myth.

Most synthetic oils are based on high grade petroleum base stocks. Mobil 1, Castrol, Valvoline, all those are no more man made than Dino SuperTech, other than they have been refined to a high level so they are comprised of "the best of the best" Dino oil for lack of any simpler way to say it. True Story.

Howard I think because nobody makes synthetic oil without friction modifiers so synthetic seems more slippery.

John

[Bonz]

Hi JW, synthetic oil is no slipperier than Dino oil and vice versa. The synthetics we are talkng about are made from highly refined petroleum base stocks, there is no difference in where they come from, i.e from the earth.

The additives are what make the difference in causing clutch slippage. It's been shown over and over with modern oil analysis to be the case.

The guys over on the ZRX forum swear by, at and to eachother about using synthetic oil for better protection vs Dino oil. I have 5 oil analysis' done over the past 20,000 miles on my '01 ZRX. Using 4,000-5,000 mile oil change intervals, the two synthetic oils had no better protection than the three Dino oils based on wear analysis (ppm of copper, aluminum, chromium, nickel, iron, etc) however they stayed in grade to a higher level, better shifting for longer, had noticeably higher flash points but no difference in additive packages with respect to anything that would make a clutch slip. Mobil 1 15w50 synthetic was the best shifting oil I used, and still had a flash point of 400 deg F, along with still being a high 40 weight oil in terms of viscosity after shearing and being used in a wet clutch system for 5,000 miles. 130+ HP, 85 ft/lbs torque and if was gonna slip it would.

I am just waiting now for someone to show a clutch in a bike that is in proper condition slip with one oil and not the other.

I don't want to be an a-hat, but I do know this stuff pretty well and it's a perpetuated myth about synthetic slippage, as long as it is not an improper synthetic with friction modifiers being used.