Synthetic Oil

[Bonz]

In my last post it should say 45 to 48 mpg, not 45 to 58 mpg.

I know the ZRX has 4.6 gallon useable of the 5 gallon capacity. I was on reserve and it went dead stick pulling up to the stop light at the the off ramp with a gas station 300 yards away. Put the petcock on prime and sloshed the tank side to side and got enough fuel back in the bowls to reach to the station. Put in exactly 4.6 gallons.

Running at the high elevation and leading the group at the rally, mpg is typically in the low to mid 50's. I have to work really hard to get it lower than the high 40 mpg range.

Harry gets some really good mileage with his FJR out here, and I know that Jerry Fields does really well with his Concours 1000 if I'm not mistaken.

[3Phase]

Thanks, Marty! I usually use Dennis Kirk or the Bike Bandit but they've never offered me any oil. Bar stewards....

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I know what you meant, Howard, and thank you! It's been raining and overcast here for over a month and it's finally a clear and sunny today.

I remember talking about mileage, emissions and smog at the Colorado rally when you and Bob were sitting off to the side with plenty of gas in your tanks and doing the Precious Pup snicker up your sleeves while the rest of us were always pulling over for fuel, especially the Specials. When I go to the store this afternoon I'll take a look at gas prices.

[Bonz]

Hey now! I'm not a foaming treehugger but the smog and other pollution laws here make sense.
When I was a kid there were times that I couldn't see anything farther than half a block away and just breathing hurt like blazes, forget about running and playing.
You don't even want to know about the water and garbage everywhere from millions of people just tossing almost anything you can imagine wherever they felt like leaving it.

Even decades after the laws went into effect, I was on a plane back in the late '80s coming home from Hawaii and at 57,000 feet up in the air the brown finger of smog started to become visible below us for several hundred miles before we reached Lost Angeles and there was a series of huge, widely scattered, 'slick' patches on the ocean that gradually became one giant slick at 50 to 100 miles of the coast. Blech.

There are tens of millions more people here now and the air and water are still better today than they were back in the '60s. Be very, very, very, glad that you live in Colorado.

Good morning! I'm happy that we both can see as far as the eye can see in clean air.

My comment about the green lovers was probably not taken like I was meaning it. In stock form the ZRX was a 45-58 mpg machine. With the 40 mm carbs adapted from the ZX-11/ZZR 1200, they are a more modern design relatively speaking and boost gas mileage into the low 50s. In stock form it did not have converters, so I don't feel there's additional vice from the exhaust it emits that I'm aware of other than a little louder sound.

The Colorado skies have been more blue every morning as a sun comes up then I've ever seen quite honestly. The world needs a month off every year to allow the Earth to recover. For heaven's sake, oil futures are in the negative. There's no place to put everything that's not being used. Gasoline prices for the nation are going to be low for awhile.

As you've probably seen under $1 in many states, my brother sees $1.39 in Austin. I'm seeing $1.69 a gallon for regular here in Colorado, with stations much lower than that just not in my area.

[jetmechmarty]

Sounds like a great deal! Where are you buying ahwl an' tahrs?

Rocky Mountain ATV, when they have what I want.

[3Phase]

Light wear after 2k miles. I'm on the throttle as much as possible.

Tough tire.

I'm sometimes lucky to get 3,000 miles out of a rear tire, which makes me angry but at the same time it's a lot of fun running those miles and thinking about getting a squeegee/scraper to get the layers of rubber off the street in front of the house.

[Radioguylogs]

Greg definitely did not like the front.

A rear 130/90-16B 74H, not available for 17" rims.

How was the wear mileage?

Kenda's advertised 3+2 casing for that tire looks like it's not as tough as the 6-ply nylon.

Light wear after 2k miles. I'm on the throttle as much as possible.

[3Phase]

Hey now! I'm not a foaming treehugger but the smog and other pollution laws here make sense.
When I was a kid there were times that I couldn't see anything farther than half a block away and just breathing hurt like blazes, forget about running and playing.
You don't even want to know about the water and garbage everywhere from millions of people just tossing almost anything you can imagine wherever they felt like leaving it.

Even decades after the laws went into effect, I was on a plane back in the late '80s coming home from Hawaii and at 57,000 feet up in the air the brown finger of smog started to become visible below us for several hundred miles before we reached Lost Angeles and there was a series of huge, widely scattered, 'slick' patches on the ocean that gradually became one giant slick at 50 to 100 miles of the coast. Blech.

There are tens of millions more people here now and the air and water are still better today than they were back in the '60s. Be very, very, very, glad that you live in Colorado.

[Bonz]

49-state models had no cat, not sure about the Cali models. They were made 1999 through 2005. 1999 and 2000 as an 1100, 2001 to 2005 was a 1200.

The stainless Muzzy exhaust system on there didn't do anything but add a bunch of power. The green lovers should be grateful as I'm turning the same amount of gas into a hell of a lot more power, still getting over 50 mpg doing it.

The ZRX has one of the most active and innovative and devoted forums in the country if not the world. Like you know every aspect of an XS1100, there's guys that took a look at the design and figured out the oil was not being optimally applied and it contributed to the pitting of cams.

[3Phase]

A rocker would need zinc for the high loading so it's good for your ZRX valve train but it's bad for the (cough) catalytic converter (/cough).

I'm kind of amazed there's a lubrication problem in the design and what must have happened to track down and figure out the problem.
That sucks pond water through a thin straw but the 'last resort' lubrication of zinc is for exactly the type of z-rated scene it creates.

[Bonz]

I am a knuckle head... You said 20W50, I read it and then my brain went looking for the info on the 15W40.

Yes the 20w50 has the lower limits on zinc and phosphorus for sure from BITOG analysis.

The ZRX has the oil sprayed on the cam lobe at the beginning of its rotation after contact with the rocker on the intake side. By the time it spins around again it isn't as well oiled as it could be. As a result ZRX owners have been more aware of higher zinc content to help minimize the known pitting issues on the ZRX cams in general but specifically the intake side.

I run Mobil 1 10w40 4T in the ZRX currently, 1300 PPM zinc and 1200 PPM phosphorus. Last year I ran M1 20W50 v twin. 1750 PPM zinc, 1600 PPM phosphorus.

[3Phase]

I don't see any 130/90 16 or 17 sizes so I could run the Roadsmart 3 on my Harley but not on my XS or XJ.
The Heritage is sporting a set of Harley-Davidson Dunlop D402 whitewalls right now that are comfortable and I like the way they look on the bike.
They're also a pitb to keep clean....

(active image won't link to the forum post)

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Dunlop Tire Series- D402 MT90B16 Wide Whitewall - 16 in. Rear
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https://www.harley-davidson.com/store/dunlop-16-rear---d402-mt90b16-pa-12-4311992a--1


I read and posted some of the SuperTech specs here a long time ago when I started using their oil if Rotella wasn't available.
If it's not obvious -- I like and use SuperTech oil.

SuperTech synthetic is still pricey for an XS/XJ but I'd use it in my Heritage M8 engine without any hesitation or worrying about the cams and roller lifters.

Again: The amount of ZDDP is a non-issue for our XS/XJ engines with overhead cams and hardened shims in the valve buckets. 800 ppm is fine.

If you want to search, try finding any published specs or a VOA for Yamalube dino, blend, or synthetic. There is a VOA for Yamalube 10W-40 dino over on BITOG but it's from back in 2008.

I haven't found any published specs for any Yamalube 50 weight synthetic or synthetic blend oils either but the prices are prominent.

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I'm not sure what you're saying about SN Plus API but the logo is printed on the back of the jug.

SuperTech 20W-50 API SN Plus
Today's price is $13.68

[Bonz]

Supertech 15w40, if you do a search for used oil analysis, still shows over 1,200 parts per million zinc. Anything above a 30 weight is grandfathered and does not need to abide by the new limits, even though it has the SN rating. I could go into more detail on that but do a search and you'll find it.

These are the weights available with an SN+rating. You will not find that rating above a 30 weight.

This is from Castrol's website but it's similar on others as well. The Advent of the SN rating is the one that reduced zinc to those low levels anyway. The "+" simply lowers the calcium and increases magnesium in the additive package, zinc limits are still low.

Castrol EDGE (Advanced Full Synthetic): 0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30
Castrol EDGE Professional: OE 0W-20,
Castrol EDGE Professional 5W-20, 5W-30
Castrol EDGE High Mileage: 0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30
Castrol EDGE Extended Performance: 0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30
Castrol EDGE Bio-Synthetic: 0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30
Castrol GTX MAGNATEC (Full Synthetic): 0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30
Castrol GTX High Mileage: 5W-30, 5W-20
Castrol GTX Ultraclean: 5W-20 and 5W-30

Mobil as well...

Mobil 1™ Annual Protection (0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30)
Mobil 1™ Extended Performance (0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30)
Mobil 1™ Extended Performance High Mileage (0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30)
Mobil 1™ Truck & SUV (0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30)
Mobil 1™ (0W-16, 0W-20, 0W-30, 5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30)
Mobil 1™ High Mileage (0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30)
Mobil Super™ Synthetic (0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30)

As for tires, the ZRX loves the Dunlop Roadsmart 3. Fantastic mileage out of the rear (close to 10,000 miles, front is almost to 12,000 and going strong) and these tires will lean over and dig through a corner as well as any tire I've used. There are other great sport-touring tires that will perform similarly however I think I found the tire I'm going to keep on using as long as they make them.

[3Phase]

When I buy tires online, I order a few gallons of Yamalube. It's inexpensive and shipped for free. No brainer.

Sounds like a great deal! Where are you buying ahwl an' tahrs?

I found Yamalube online at Parker Yamaha (same place I buy the Yamaha shaft-seal-safe carburetor cleaner) for $17.25/gallon but you need 5 quarts so you're cracking open the next gallon.

WallyWorld 20W50 is only $13.68 for a 5 quart jug. There is no cracking open a second gallon jug or buying a quart single to top up the fill.

SuperTech is API SN Plus (supposed to help with Low-Speed Pre-Ignition (LSPI) in turbo engines? ) is only rated for 0.08 ppm for Zinc/Phosphorous so it doesn't look like it has as much of the Holy ZDDP as in days of yore.

It's hard to find consistent and reliable JASO numbers for Yamalube because it's a proprietary blend for Yamaha but it looks like it was cut back to 0.08 ppm from 0.12 ppm too so the API SN Plus ZDDP numbers may be similar if not identical. The panicky hoo-hah kerfuffle about flat tappet cam wear is about the extremely high loads on pushrod valve trains with conventional lifters, not overhead camshafts like the XS1100 so it's not a mechanical wear deal breaker.

Another opportunity to talk tires in the oil thread

I really like the Kenda Kruz I put on the V65, but it took lots of weight to balance the rear.

Greg definitely did not like the front.

A rear 130/90-16B 74H, not available for 17" rims.

How was the wear mileage?

Kenda's advertised 3+2 casing for that tire looks like it's not as tough as the 6-ply nylon.

[BA80]

I really like the Kenda Kruz I put on the V65, but it took lots of weight to balance the rear.

I got stuck with one of those when I had a front go down in Arkansas on the way to XSSE. I couldn't WAIT to get that thing off my bike.

It went away on a bike I sold.

[Radioguylogs]

When I buy tires online, I order a few gallons of Yamalube. It's inexpensive and shipped for free. No brainer.

Another opportunity to talk tires in the oil thread

I really like the Kenda Kruz I put on the V65, but it took lots of weight to balance the rear.