just got a thing in the mail about them coming out, any info on this. they any good?

 

How to know if 'performance' oils are 'good' or not? Often you can't. Very little petroleum engineering level info, but lots of feel-good marketing.

These days there is no bad oil in the first world, unless you go for virgin olive oil in the crank case. Kawasaki isn't in the refining business, so they'll have some reputable source fill the bottles, then they'll make their claims. The motivation is simple: This is high profit margin stuff!

Oil beliefs tend to be subjective and psychological. Whatever feels good. I've never been very **** about oils (despite accusations of no wire coat hangers in the closet). For motorcycles, given thigh motor, transmission, gear loads, and clutch needs, I go for the upper SAE viscosity range numbers of 40 or 50.

My current 'favorite' oil is favored for no other reason than I also use it in the ranch diesels, Shell Rotella 15W40 (or is it 50 - I can't remember). If I really want to feel special, I put in one quart if similarly viscous synthetic and then top off with Rotella. But I'll have no worries using a generic 20W50.

 

I am a big Rottella fan but at the end of the season in December when I was doing my winter service for all three of my bikes I needed some coolant for the KLX and the Versys and stopped at the dealer to get some. being out of Rottella and not wanting to drive to Crap-mart for more, I picked up some Kawi 100% synthetic 10w40.

I am sure it is FINE if not as good as most any oil sold, the oddest thing, the oil is GREEN. The conventional Kawi oil is not, but the synthetic is. I had to check 4 times to be sure I didn't put the coolant in my crankcase, but nope, sure enough, it is indeed green.

Riding the KLX the past few weeks with it, shifting seems buttery smooth as always.

The Rottella dino is 15w40 the synthetic is 5w40, in the winter I run the synthetic as is, in the summer I mix it 50/50.

 

How much does the Kaw oil cost compared to other quality synthetics that you can buy at Walmart and such...like Mobil 1, Rottella, etc.

 

They have been selling Elf full synthettic up here rebranded as Kawasaki oil.
Don't know if that's what it will be.

 

well, unless i get some quarts free, i guess ill keep running my maxima syn-blend. bike seams to really like the stuff, and unlike some people, i am **** about the oil i run. in my honda civic, i only run moble 1 syn in the motor and genuine honda tranny oil, not some feel good marketing, but what i found the car like best, and just like the bike, i beat the thing so i want it to last. if you dont really ride a lot or hard, yes, normal oil would be fine, but i ride hard, on the freeway, and alreadly have 15k on the motor, so i use the good stuff.

 

But if you really go for the good stuff and really want it to last, why do you go with a blend in your bike and full synthetic in the car? You do know to be called a blend the oil only needs 10 or 15% synthetic oil right? It isn't 50/50 as some may assume.

 

"genuine honda tranny oil" ?

If it's a automatic trans. then probably a VERY good idea. If it's an manual you may want to rethink that ... the first time I used Honda OEM trans. fluid I thought they had sold me bottles of red colored water ... very, very thin fluid - like 1W! If you're driving a manual, then any high quality lube of proper viscosity will work fine and maybe save you some $$$.

I'm also ultra super maxi picky about oils/lubricants BUT try to separate fact from marketing hype. And there's more hype than fact just about everywhere.

Dump 10qts of store brand "Dexron II" in a newer model Honda (or others) and a mechanic is likely to be in your future.

Kind of sucks, but as with my '07 Nissan Xterra, the OEM trans fluid is high quality full synthetic, which is not cheap regardless of the name on the bottle. So it's not a total rip-off ... just a partial rip-off.

I'm waiting to see people with CVT's (cont. variable transmission) try to go on the cheap and dump in something other than OEM fluid ... very, very bad idea and suicidal if vehicle still under warranty. If you think synthetics are pricey ... check out CVT fluid

Oh .. back to your orig post

+1 on OEM motor oils very unlikely to be better than equiv. petro company brands. If they made em' price competitive then would be a toss up. But more expensive ... forget it.

 

i use a blend cus the bike ran just as good on the blend as the syn, and i change it every 1000. the honda only got there tranny fluid AFTER they changed the formula. the car called for 10w40(?) from the factory, then it was found by racers the gm synco-mesh (sp?) worked good. tryed that for a while, then honda revised there tranny fluid, and i found for me it shifted better than the gm stuff, switched to that. i use to fun royal purple when i went to uti, cus i got it cheap, but sence switched to mobil 1 and found it ran just the same. and ill never own an auto, cant stand not having a clutch and gears.

 

very good point about "blends" ... except under the most extreme conditions (which few if any of us actually encounter) "synthetic blend" engine oils are a FAR BETTER VALUE than "full synthetic". 98% of the benefits at 70% of the price (or lower)