Mineral or synth oil for a 2004 r1150r?

[GaryS]

My bike has 36,500 miles on it. I've owned it for the last 2K. Can I switch to synthetic oil? Is it better or even matter?

[gregor]

My 2002 R1150R is on 22,000 miles. I run on semi -synthetic 20W/50. Silkolene Super4.
Made in UK by Fuchs. Change my oil every year or at most every second year if I am distracted by real life events.

And I only ride in the British summer ( started in July this year and ends September usually)

[sstein]

Given the endless number of debates about this question without a clear answer, my guess is that it doesn't matter.

[towerworker]

I think your best answer depends on your style of riding, conditions and climate. If you are in a lot of stop and go traffic and in a pretty hot climate then my vote would definitely be synthetic. Synthetic handles hot conditions better than dyno oil. You can stretch your change intervals with synthetic.

Myself I run Castrol GTX 20/50 in spring, summer and fall. Then 10/40 in winter. And I change oil/filter every 3,000 miles. As already mentioned you can get many, many opinions on what you should do.

As long as you run good quality oil and filter and change it on a reasonable schedule you'll be ok.

[bransan]

Castrol gtx 20w-50 most of the time.
I don't get much winter riding on 2 wheels, so I use 2 cycle oil in the winter, in My Ski-Doo.

[riceburner]

Still running Castrol Actevo (mineral) 10W40 all year round.
92,000 and going strong.

[sukizilla]

I use Semi-Synthetic " Duckhams Hyper Grade plus 15W-50 " in my 1997 R1100R.

[Newportcycle]

As long as you run good quality oil and filter and change it on a reasonable schedule you'll be ok.

Very reasonable response, well said. +1

[sjbmw]

I switched to synth at 24k miles.
At 40k now and the bike still runs smooth.

[Biff's R]

I've used either Mobil 1(15w50), or Castrol Syntec(5w50) since the first oil change. The bike is running great at 72k miles. I change oil and filter at 6k miles more or less.

[BigC]

Not sure the OP is still in the hunt here but I'll lend my pennies. I ran Amsoil in mine for five years since I bought it and was perfectly happy. Unfortunately my "oil guy" stopped selling that stuff and I ended up at Walmart. They had the 15w-50 Mobil 1 which I wasn't thrilled by but it'd been a while since I'd used that brand so why not. It started leaking from the left valve cover so that I'd get to enjoy the odor at stop lights. It also started smoking when it was on it's sidestand for any length of time. I put up with that for 3 weeks and changed it out for Castrol 20w-50 and all is right with the world. I'll just change it out more often.