Boy, Is this can of worms open again.
The thread that Jake opened is a good insight to a debate that seems to be able to turn into near war.
I will back the deisel oil theory because I have ran on it for years. While working to Honda I tried all the lastest goop and every time you change the oil the gears shift better.
Yes my clutch slipped at one time. It was knackered, nothing to do with oil.
Petrol car oil is not as high grade as diesel.
The best of the diesel oils all fall under the banner of SHPD (super high performance diesel). There are all weights available.
Syn/semi syn/non syn.
Big debate that resulted in court cases in the US. In the end the courts more or less threw the whole thing out as there was no way of proving what the oil companies were really providing. So semi syn could have no real amount of syn product in it. Fully syn can be fully syn if it has some fully syn product in it.
Incedently if oil is fully syn it is a kind of an environmental problem to dispose of. So if an oil company was ask to dispose of its products for the customer (this is a threat that has sat on the back burner in some countries for a while) fully syn would cause them a major problem. While on one hand they want to sell you a fancy brand on the other they try and say its the same only differant?
when it comes to recycling.
Really what it boils down to is marketing and fancy names. And in marketing to the bike market for the best part they are marketing to the leisure market and a load of fanatics who will buy anything "good" for their machines.
Dont believe all you read. I am not sure of the products as of now but a few years back Shell Myrina SHPD (rimula x now) (109ppl then) was the same oil as Helix (440ppl then) on the forecourt in small jars. The only differances were the fancy 4ltr yellow jars vs plain 20ltr drums.
The oil companies sell at both forecourt and commercial rates which are very differant. A filling station or retail place has to pay more. A commercial (truck workshop) uses more oil for one oil change than than a bike shop uses in one day. Truck oil change intervals are akin to the entire lifecycle of a bike.
The commercial market is the largest lube market in the world so therfore very competitive.
Shell Rimula (was myrina) was and still is by far the biggest selling single range of lube.
Now before those fanatics amonst you get all hot and flustered it doesnt concern me what you use in a bike. Feel welcome to use fully syn YEHAA from the planet Zorb if you wish. Just remember that the differance in the cost of that little jar of oil is likely to be greater than the differance between rubbish brake pads (the ones with all the race sponsership on bikes) and the ones that were made for your single caliper machines.
I just felt like a rant as I do not like marketing and this oil thing is all about marketing.
If you need something there is no point in trying to sell it to you, you'll buy it anyhow.
If its being sold to you, you dont need it.
Hope you enjoy.