I have a quick question about using racing synthetic motorcycle oils in a dual sport motorcycle mainly used on the street. It is my understanding that racing oils are mainly designed for the track and may not be ideal for use in a regular "frequently" used motorcycle. It is thought that the racing oil will be used for a race and then changed soon after. My question is how does this pertain to motorcycle oils such as Mobil 1 10w-40 racing motorcycle oil where they only make one form of a synthetic oil in the 10w-40 grade and that grade claims to be for "racing" on the label? Is Mobil 1 10w-40 racing motorcyle oil ideal to use in a daily use motocycle where the OCI may be several thousand miles and once or twice a year? Will I loose any engine life by using this oil over another company's synthetic oil that comes in both regular use and racing form such as Motul 7100 / 300v? As everyone probably knows, Motul 7100 is a full sythetic designed for daily use while the 300v is a full synthetic designed for racing use. I know Castrol also had two forms of synthetic 10w40 motorcycle oil (race and regular) a couple of years ago, but I looks like they now only have a regular form now. I like Mobil 1 oils and have had very good luck with their use in my cars and trucks over a number of years, hence the reason I am interested in using it in my motorcycle. Thanks for any comments back.
Racing motorcycle oils
- Thread starter BradleyB
- Start date
Amsoil's smoother and shifts better in my bike than M1 racing oil.
Any of those oils you mentioned are for everyday use, regardless that on the Mobile 1 says Racing.
The Amsoil looks the most robust and it has a bit higher viscosity than the other three oils.
Below are their product technical data sheets. Looking at their technical data I would choose either Amsoil or Motul. The Amsoil has the higher TBN (11.6) and HTHS (4.7) values that makes it the most robust of all four oils. Amsoil and Motul displayed their oils' TBN (total base number) and HTHS (high temp high shear) values, where Mobile 1 and Castrol don't or at least I couldn't find it.
Amsoil Metric 10W40 (second page of PDF, second column is the tech data for 10W40)
https://amsoilcontent.com/ams/lit/databulletins/g3348.pdf
Motul 7100 10W40 (second page of PDF is the data)
https://azupim01.motul.com/media/motulData/DO/base/7100_10w-40_4t_en_fr_motul_16500_20230929.pdf
Mobile 1 Racing 10W40 (technical data in the bottom of the page, before reviews)
https://www.mobil.com/en/lubricants...ur-products/products/mobil-1-racing-4t-10w-40
Castrol Power1 4T 10W-40
https://msdspds.castrol.com/bpglis/...56137F980258A5F0019EB1C/$File/wepp-cxb7jx.pdf
The Amsoil looks the most robust and it has a bit higher viscosity than the other three oils.
Below are their product technical data sheets. Looking at their technical data I would choose either Amsoil or Motul. The Amsoil has the higher TBN (11.6) and HTHS (4.7) values that makes it the most robust of all four oils. Amsoil and Motul displayed their oils' TBN (total base number) and HTHS (high temp high shear) values, where Mobile 1 and Castrol don't or at least I couldn't find it.
Amsoil Metric 10W40 (second page of PDF, second column is the tech data for 10W40)
https://amsoilcontent.com/ams/lit/databulletins/g3348.pdf
Motul 7100 10W40 (second page of PDF is the data)
https://azupim01.motul.com/media/motulData/DO/base/7100_10w-40_4t_en_fr_motul_16500_20230929.pdf
Mobile 1 Racing 10W40 (technical data in the bottom of the page, before reviews)
https://www.mobil.com/en/lubricants...ur-products/products/mobil-1-racing-4t-10w-40
Castrol Power1 4T 10W-40
https://msdspds.castrol.com/bpglis/...56137F980258A5F0019EB1C/$File/wepp-cxb7jx.pdf
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I'm running Motul 300V 4T 15w50 in all five of our sportbikes. I leave it in for the full OCI. The bikes run and shift great.
I would think the only reasons to use a "racing designed oil" in a street bike, would be to help with fuel dilution and possibly shearing. If your bike has a proper tune in it, it shouldn't be dumping excess fuel when ridden as designed. And some bikes tend to shear oil out of grade more that others. Racing rated oil won't provide much protection if your engines red line is 7k rpms, and you want to run it at 12k rpms. You'll probably have mechanical damage not related to the oil your using. So using what the mfgr says to use for street use, will more that likely do everything you'll ever need it to.,,
Mobil 1 10w40 4T starts out as a very low 40 grade. I've done (3) ~5,000 mile OCI's with it in my ZRX1200, and the one I did a TBN on was still 6.5. If Mobil started this oil as close to the top of the 40 grade range (KV 16.3) as it does does to the bottom of the 40 grade range (KV 12.3) it would stay have stayed in grade every time on my UOA's. And even with that, it stayed in grade once and dang close in my opinion on the other two OCI's given the starting viscosity. As it sits in the most recent Mobil literature, it starts at KV 13.4.
It's SN rated, and MA/MA2. Perfectly applicable to most road going bikes. I think the "racing" reference in the title is marketing.
Agree to a large extent that it's marketing, however, because it has such a low KV value of 13.4 to start, that means less friction loss all else equal compared to other 10w40 manufacturer specs.
If it's in spec, it's in spec. Manufacturers don't skew to the low end of spec for a purpose.
You don't think so? I would absolutely disagree with that. Marketing has a purpose, and a published low KV is marketing.....
I can't prove it my way, and for sure it can't be shown that they're interested in anything other than being between the low range and the high range, but it's pretty clear where Mobil sits in the range and I suspect they know how to make a oil fall in that range where they want to make the oil fall. Goes back to the OP and racing oil question.
Makes pretty good sense, don't you think, that racing oil would be on the low end of spec for whatever range it is in, regardless of the TBN or OCI that it is capable of achieving.
I can't prove it my way, and for sure it can't be shown that they're interested in anything other than being between the low range and the high range, but it's pretty clear where Mobil sits in the range and I suspect they know how to make a oil fall in that range where they want to make the oil fall. Goes back to the OP and racing oil question.
Makes pretty good sense, don't you think, that racing oil would be on the low end of spec for whatever range it is in, regardless of the TBN or OCI that it is capable of achieving.
If you want a thicker oil than 10W-40, buy 20w-50. I'd never give a second of thought to trying to buy an oil that's skewed one way or another within the spec viscosity range.
What you're saying is Mobil (or other mfg's) doesn't skew within the spec to make it a lighter or heavier grade within the 40 grade. Mobil absolutely did that and marketed it as such.