I'm using this stuff on both my bikes from now on. Year round, cold, hot, whatever. Kick butt 40c and 100c cST viscosity. Normal zddp levels, high shear resistant and flash point. Excellent UOA, recently JASO-MA certified. Lots of water cooled as well as Air cooled people are starting to use this oil. BMW oil heads are using it, Victory V-twins are using it. Seems to be very high quality stuff for a very reasonable price.

My Ultra always ticks when starting up. This ticking lasts about 20 to 30 seconds and is due to lack of lubrication until the oil is pumped through. The 20W50 I'm using has a rated viscosity of 125 at 40c (104f) and 18 at 100c (212f). This is why most engine wear happens at startup.

My other bike, Zx11, had been doing the same thing. I was using M1 15W50. Even where I live, South Florida, 15W weight oil is way too thick at startup. I tested this at the next oil changed. Went to 5W30 (not recommended-energy conserving - VI - moly ...) Right away, no noise. Extremely quiet startups and flash point is still at 230c (446f). This bike will also get the T6 treatment soon. The M1 5W30 has worked great for the past 10,000 miles on that bike but it shears down quite a bit at 5000 OCI's.

I'll post UOA's here after a few test runs on both bikes. It will be a while on the Harley as it is not used everyday as my other bike.

 

I'm no oil expert and i think that weight oil would be good on cold days but on hot days it may do some damage to the bearings.

 

I'm not expert either but I know 20w50 flows like thick honey at 70f and barely flows below 40f. I tested this using virgin oil, thermometer, and my fridge. Compared M1 Vtwin, 15w50, 5w30, and T6 5W40. Fastest flow was with M1 5W30 (currently using it in my zx). Close second was the T6. The fatter oils were very thick. Frankly, I dont know how oil gets through the oil lines even when at 75f. It can't be good for the engine. I'm sure hot temperature protection is excellent but the thinner oils can handle the heat just as well. At 300f there is very little difference in cSt between any of these.

Again, I'm no expert. Just learning about this stuff but willing to try different things and see the results from Blackstone. Personally I believe just about any oil will work fine in most applications. Differences in zddp levels may mean the difference of an engine lasting 200K vs 210K IMO. It's all useless but I find it interesting. I'm sure I'll have traded in my Ultra Looooong before any of this will matter anyways.

 

I am with you on the Rotella synthetic 5w-40. I have had no trouble with it whatsoever. Now that it is cooling off, it is one of this weekends projects.

 

But does'nt a synthetic 20w50 or any syn oil flow like water. The stuff seems thin as water when ever I pour it.

 

Yes, the use of a 5w30 oil in a Harley engine will cause damage the first time you get stuck in traffic on a hot day. 20w50 synthetics are fine for temps down to about 20f. If I lived in Florida I would be running Redline or Amsoil 20w60.

 

I agree completely with KBFXDLI. A 5w40 is much too thin for these engines unless you are riding in Antarctica. When a traffic situation happens and it eventually will, you will probably find out then with all the strange noises in the engine.

Some people just have to learn the hard way what it took engineers many years to figure out.

 

I am no expert but I have my oil tested by people who are and guess what? after about the first 1000 miles Mobil 1 vtwin 20-50 and shell rotella 5-40 are identical. So unless you are changing oil every 1000 miles there is no real difference.

 

What's the Shell oil like after 5000 miles run in a HD bike on hot days?
I think the gap in viscosity would allow for major shearing, just sayin, respectively that is.

 

It stays in grade the entire oil change interval and the lab even says to continue running it longer. Deisel oils generally resist shearing. bobtheoilguy.com had some of my oil analysis sheets comparing mb vtwin 20-50 to rotella. both oils are good but for the money hard to beat Rotella. I ran it in Sturgis traffic in over 100* with no break down.