Which Rotella | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Which Rotella

My preferred oil for racing two strokes IS vegetable based.

NO seriously... Castrol R30, made from Castor beans. There is no other oil to lube a 2T top end better when things get hot.
R30 comes with a TON of overhead. It won't stay mixed. The fuel keeps for two, three days, then clots. You have to tear down and inspect every weekend. You can't let it get cold. It's STUPID expensive $35-40/liter... WHEN you can find it... IF you can find it... and IF you want to switch oils, you have to tear down the motor and wash everything, cuz R30 clots when it meets petro oils.
A royal PIA, but the BEST.
 
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... and while we're... I guess... while I'M spouting off about oils
Did you know 2T oil has more power in it than gas.
Evinrude did tests and found they made the most power at 9:1... the motor wouldn't idle and would hardly run till WOT... BUT... MORE POWER
One of those counter-intuitive things.
2T oil is low octane rated, so watch out... you can get hi-octane 2T oil... that smells like cherries.
 
... and while we're... I guess... while I'M spouting off about oils
Did you know 2T oil has more power in it than gas.
Evinrude did tests and found they made the most power at 9:1... the motor wouldn't idle and would hardly run till WOT... BUT... MORE POWER
One of those counter-intuitive things.
2T oil is low octane rated, so watch out... you can get hi-octane 2T oil... that smells like cherries.
Gordon Jennings did a whole article about this in the old Cycle magazine a long time ago.
I think he settled on 10:1-12:1 as his optimum choice.
When Bel-Ray and Spectro came out with their synthetic premix 2-T oils it was a game changer, you took stuff apart and it was clean AND well lubricated.
Castrol R or A747 sure smells nice though...
 
On the subject if BEST
Arguably the BEST lubrication oil comes out of the ground in Pennsylvania, it's known thing, it relates to the shape of the molecules. They're shaped like a barrel, usually oil molecules are more like a TicTac candy shape.
You know how many companies sell Pennsylvania motor oil. NO ONE... Brad Penn USED to, they got bought.
MOST lubricating oil stocks today are sold by three compounders, and all the manufacturers buy off all three.
 
Some people havin a real bad case of the Mondays today...
bitzz gets fired up over Rotella like a cat over squirrels in the bird feeder. And I say that with considerable respect
 
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... bitzz is SUPPOSED to be doing bodywork... and bitzz HATES doing body work... so instead he's here... spouting off on one of his favourite internet subjects.

I'll go beat gas tank.
Body work is bad enough, i'm doing CUSTOM body work. YECK. If you're doing repair, you make this side look like that side. When you're doing custom... you got nothing to compare it to.
I USED to able to do this... I'm getting old... but I hated body work when I was young too
 
... but one more:
Rotella USED to have higher levels of ZDDP (Zinc. It's a good thing) and MIGHT have been a good reason to use it in your motor.
It doesn't anymore,it now has less zinc than any motorcycle oil, on par with average "car" oil
 
Let me cut through the fog for ya
Any one that says "I've never had a problem" is NOT recommending, they are saying " you could do worse" There was no positive outcome, only neutral outcome. No net gain
I AM recommending, I'm telling you you could do BETTER. I HAVE seen problems with using Rotella in a motorcycle. There's a POSITIVE outcome, there IS a net gain by NOT using Rotella.
Make sense?
It all makes sense. Just like religion makes sense.

The bottom line is Rotella has worked for me, exceeded my expectations, and likely saved me a lot of money over the years. I respect science and have read many technical arguments explaining why some oils are better than others, and I won't disagree. But in the great scheme of things, being 100% better than something achieving 98% already -- Does any of this matter to a street bike? In theory, perhaps, in practice, I'll bet it doesn't add much difference over the life of a bike.
 
I always loved the smell of burnt bean oil
And now you can buy oil that smells like cherries, or grape, or bananas....

OK... WHY?

Castrol smells like racing... grapes smell like... grapes... and that stuff doesn't REALLY smell like grapes... sorta greasy grapes
YUK
 
And now you can buy oil that smells like cherries, or grape, or bananas....

OK... WHY?

Castrol smells like racing... grapes smell like... grapes... and that stuff doesn't REALLY smell like grapes... sorta greasy grapes
YUK
Daughter used ipone strawberry in her ty175 for a while. It was nice deep in the woods.
 
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Daughter used ipone strawberry in her ty175 for a while. It was nice deep in the woods.

Lime IPONE would be good in a 2T Margarita blender.

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Smelled like money in the bank. $129 / 18.9lt = $6.82/liter
 
Right off the hop I need to do at least three. Sounds about right - probably 6 changes spread over next year and a half (not all 3 get the same amount of use).
 

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