Motorcycle Oil – Do You Buy Manufacturer Specific?

We recently came across a news story about BMW developing their own brand of oil. Honda has a brand, Yamaha has a brand, and a couple of others.

Harley Davidson has been branding oil with their name for almost as long as they have been making motorcycles. There are a couple of reasons why manufacturers do this. One is for money. They tell you to use their oil and at one point in history if you didn’t they denied any repair claims you made. The second is some manufacturers take the time to develop a specific mixture to add performance and longevity to their motorcycles. They only guarantee peak performance when using their brand oil. This isn’t a warranty denial but an excuse for lesser performance.

Let’s get a very large non secret out of the way. Oil is possibly the most argued about, most discussed, and maybe even most brand loyal item in the motorized vehicle world. Visit any forum, discussion group, or local meet and greet and oil will be there and discussed. Want to try to out do oil? Ask what exhaust should I get?

So in order to start mass chaos and infinite length discussions. What oil do you use?