4 stroke motorcycle oil??

I just bought an 09 Yamaha 250 V Star, it didn't have an owner's manual so I just checked Google on recommended oil to use in it. The answers were basically ads. so I thought I'd come here and ask the question. It's only got 2,700 miles on it so I don't think I want to use synthetic yet. Probably any oil rated for 4 stroke M/C use would be fine but I just wanted to hear if anyone has had exceptionally good or bad service from any specific brand.

You can (or at least your could) access all the factory Yamaha manuals and shop manuals on their website. It was all free of charge, check it out.

I say at that mileage you can use synthetic. I always used Motul on all my motorcycles.

It seems like oil threads on discussion forums can get pretty nutty and heated, but GRM's forum is usually good about that not happening. Here's my thinking on the subject. Note, I own a Honda VFR, so a different motorcycle, but with engine oil also being the transmission oil like I think your V-Star is set up, there may be a little value here;

I don't see any reason to not go synthetic at this point aside from cost. Rings are probably decently seated at 2,700 miles. Yamaha has their own oils that you could use, I think the big thing is to get an oil of the recommended viscosity, the only question is if your bike is susceptible to clutch problems if run in modern "car oil" because of the wet clutch and friction modifiers causing premature clutch glazing. Some bikes don't seem to care, some can have real problems here.

Something else that can vary bike to bike is shifter feel. When I ran Rotella T6 in my VFR, a full change of just T6 would cause the shifter to feel really notchy and sticky in action. It was pretty poor. However, I found by adding a quart of conventional Suzuki 20w50 motorcycle oil to the mix (I had a spare quart from a previous bike) that the shifter felt great and this oil mix doesn't darken too fast. I've never had the oil sampled professionally so I'm only guessing really but the bike seems happy with a good 40,000 miles of this sort of oil mix.

Wix apparently sells a filter for your bike if the Yamaha filter isn't to your liking. K&N too but I personally put more faith in Wix

I gave up looking for 4 stroke motorcycle oil, too expensive and hard to find. I run 15w-40 diesel oil in the punky buellster and use a WIX car filter that fits. The 15-40 is like 10$ a gallon, so for 10$ I can change the oil every 1500miles. You can't find a motorcycle oil for under 20$ a gallon and I honestly don't know why it costs so much. If you have a wet clutch you just gotta make sure you don't use oil with friction modifiers. The clutch I put in my bike specifically says not to use synthetics for what it is worth.

benz: Why change it so often?

Castrol Hypuron is what I use. It's a semi syn diesel oil. It's as cheap, or cheaper than Rotella (another excellent choice) and works great. Castrol has a cheap motorcycle specific 10/40 and 20/50 also available here at Walmart.

Do not use anything labeled energy conserving. That's the stuff that your clutch plates won't like.

I beat the crap out of the blast and do a lot of short rides, rev it to the redline, etc. This isn't a honda or bmw, I figure the most I'd go is 2000miles. The recommended change is 2500 miles but the oil would come out nasty. Oil is cheap engines aren't. Just my situation riding like an idiot.

I've always ran Amsoil or Mobil 1 synthetics in my bikes. Generally speaking, 10w-40 in liquid cooled and 20w-50 in air cooled. Anything motorcycle specific for wet clutches should suit the bike fine in 20w-50, synthetic or not.

There's diesel oil options as well, but I won't get into that.

I'm sticking with what the PO used.......Motul.

I run Rotella T Diesel oil. A lot of people run it and it's quite cheap.

I use Honda's recommended oil. There might be some awesome wizz bang cheaper oil out there but $9 for a 2 qt oil change? BFD.

Why not just use some tractor hydraulic fluid with regular motor oil?

Appleseed wrote: I use Honda's recommended oil. There might be some awesome wizz bang cheaper oil out there but $9 for a 2 qt oil change? BFD.

2 qt? dang. I'm more than 2x that.

In reply to Ranger50:

Is this serious or in jest?

In reply to pres589:

Dead serious.

I use tractor hyd fluid in the automatic transmissions around here to increase their heat tolerance, pressure stability, and overall longevity. You are all talking about "wet clutches" and the fluid I use is for wet clutches. So that is why I ask.

Grtechguy wrote: I run Rotella T Diesel oil. A lot of people run it and it's quite cheap.

This. Rotella T6 Synthetic 5w40 is all I use in my WR. It's JASO MA rated, so its safe for wet clutches, is cheaper than any MC specific oil, and usually outperforms them in lab tests.

I like Rotella T6. I use it in everything, 2 or 4 stroke.

Both my R1 and my 10R shifted better on T6 than they did on Castrol Superbike.