A member from another forum worked for a HD dealership and he and the owner decided to test some oils on some 2007 rental bikes. Here is the results as of 10/16/07. Scoring is 1 - 10, ten being the best. I must add, the gentleman, known as NotPC, was just recently killed in Iraq. He will be very very missed.


Bike #4 will be running Lucas Motorcycle 20w50 full syn in the engine and primary with 75w90 full syn in the trans.
Bike #4 had by far the least metallic and non-metallic particles overall , it's acid & carbon levels were best everywhere except the engine, where it's acid level was 2nd lowest and it's carbon level was also 2nd lowest. Score 8.5

Bike #3 will be Mobile1 V-Twin 20w50 full syn in all 3 holes.
Bike #3 was 2nd lowest in over all particle count, only to the oil used in bike #4, the acid level and carbon level of it's engine oil were lowest of all oils tried. Score 8.0

Bike #1 will be running HD Syn3 in all 3 holes.
Bike #1 was 2nd highest in the overall particles found in the oil and also 2nd highest in acid and carbon found. It showed high levels of "Gear Metal Particles" in the trans oil. Score 5


Bike #2 will be running HD non syn oil in all 3 holes, HD 360 multi-grade 20w50 in the engine, and Formula+ Transmission and Primary Chain-case Lubricant in the trans & primary.
Bike #2 had the highest amount of particles of all the oils and it's acid and carbon levels (engine levels were alarming) were much higher then any of the other oils, It's primary oil showed early signs of a burnt clutch. Score 3

Hope this answers some questions for everyone.

 

This is a nice idea but realistically there are many many variables involved when testing oils and ranking them on particle counts. You need to do a very controlled study and understand oil analysis to make those types of judgements. Plus many oils show high numbers on the first 1-2 oil changes which subside over time. You need to compare UOA's against universal averages of samples taken from many engines.

 

One bike should have been used for testing after it was fully broken in. It would have been a more realistic view of oil performance. The only other way would have been to swap oils in the 4 bikes, one at a time and record wear level changes with oils. As it stands bike 1 could just be a piece of junk and have high levels even with full syn.
Ron

 

i got to agree you would run the same oil's in all bike's and you did'nt say anything about milage and you would'nt run reg oil as long as you would syn.sorry the test dont hold much water.

 

Interesting responses. For your information, I did not run the tests, just reported them. An update for you. HD was impressed with the testing and have now started it's own in house testing. Don't know if their testing will hold any water either, but I thought I would let you know.

 

Blues, that's good info, thanks. Now let's see how many chime in with "why didn't you test XXX (my) oil?". I don't think you could do ANY test without someone finding fault with it. Even in my own bike, I was getting less than satisfactory results with one oil, switched, and got better results (UOA). But who's to say that the tests wouldn't have come back better even if I'd used the same oil again?
I think, too, that using rental bikes is about the worse one could do. I'd rather a test on a dyno or at the very least with the same one or group of riders.
My personal feelings are that the oil has to be selected based on three criteria: the equipment it's used in, the environment in which it's used, and the manner in which it's used. Find the right oil to satisfy those three, and you've got yourself a winner.