Post
by Gun » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:58 am
I tried to answer spargetts question too. using time tested methods.
I'm sure new oil is top of the line. But these basically ARE lawn mower engines. they are old they are small, they are simple. I see no LOGICAL reason to put anything else in these engines. The question was 'is there anything BETTER?' not 'which oil has what viscosity and what length are its strands'. You define better by it's scientific properties and ability to lubricate. I define better by what is most practical and time tested.
What is disheartening is that you are suggesting there is only one better;
as if better is an objective term, which you have written down in a book in front of you clearly explaining the very nature of better. But I dare say what makes a better oil in your opinion doesn't make a better donut. If 'better' doesn't even define the same values and qualities between different objects, how can 'better' be one idea? I already went into what a cb77 would look like if we applied your 'better' to it entirely... disk brakes, temp gauges, heated grips, aerodynamic fairings, bored out, liquid cooled, fuel injected, etc.... if you're talking about peak performance or technical specs (which you keep suggesting I back up my argument with) being the only interpretation of 'better' then I simply don't know why you purchased a 305cc 1960's honda instead of a sports bike. These are basically large scooters. I love them, but lets not pretend they are performance machines.
There certainly are things that we the rider will interpret better as being performance related... and oil very well may be one of them. It certainly would be to me if i had encountered any problem with the 30w oil. I haven't... and so it's not. So my 'better' regarding this is based on other factors.
edit: so to answer spartgetts question in my opinon,
There are oils out there that are technically superior. However, the engine wasn't designed to run on those oils, I have seen no data showing benefits of running new oils over the 30w in THESE engines. To me, any slight performance increase from changed oil isn't worth it because this is not a peak performance machine and all we DO have on paper is over four decades of these engines running successfully on the 30w. If someone wants to do a side by side comparison and put 20k miles on two identical bikes with different oils and post the results here, I'd be happy to reconsider if the benefits were huge, and cost wasn't a factor to me.
Last edited by
Gun on Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
'65 CB77
'66 CB450k0
'93 HD FXR