TheOriginalEasyrider
Member
I agree with you. The junk I used to feed my panhead in the 60's makes me shudder. God watches over drunk Sailors and little children.
I guess the point I was trying to make is that if you change your fluids often and aren't beating the life out of your bike, pretty much any quality lubricant will work. But for me, synthetic always has a better base numbers and additive packages. It also is far less volatile so it holds it's viscosity longer. Synthetic is definitely better at dissipating heat. For the small extra cost of using a really good synthetic versus putting my engine at risk it just makes sense to me to not skimp. As to the tranny and chaincase.... in 60 years of almost daily riding I have never had a gear related transmission problem. I believe prior to synthetics coming along I ran straight 50W car oil in it. Living in New Hampshire she wasn't a happy girl until the tranny oil heated up. Ditto for the chaincase. I've never eaten a tensioner and have never had clutch plate problems so as you say, probably pretty much any dino oil will work but.... In my old age and having OCD it just seems smart to feed her the good stuff.
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