[Hobie1]

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Folks, e-mail me about what you actually use. I will not post anything you send me. Truth.

I did have my very trusted mechanic tell me that he recently opened a OEM Honda filter and it had F... stamped on the metal piece. I have no reason whatsoever to not believe him.

I'm just curious. I may very well use the F Word for my bike.

This isn't and shouldn't open up the damned oil/filter/plug/tire/battery/fuel debate.

Hobie

Please, don't waste your time debating the values of this and that. Like I said, I would like your honest opinion posted to my e-mail.:waving:

 

[Hobie1]

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No takers so far.

Oh well, I can understand the reluctance to address this subject as contencious as it can be.

Regards,

hobie

 

[Hobie1]

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All right, thanks to you who took me up on my offer. Keep 'em coming.

Hobie

 

[jsmith24]

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At the risk of being flamed (thoughI know not why), I will openly state that I use the Fram - yes, I said it - oil filter. It costs me about $3 each, and comes with all the o-rings needed. They seem perfectly fine to me.

Is there some reason that I should not reveal this little secret?

Jack

 

[Hobie1]

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I don't know but it seems the Fram word really fires up some people.
Oh well, to each his own. Don't hate me because I'm beautiful

Hobie

Oh, BTW, there is apparently a lot of "closet" Fram users out there judging by my personal e-mails. Very satisfied customers.

 

[oldguybiker]

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Hi, Been using Fram oil filters in my wings for years. I use them in my GL1100 and GL1200 now. They cost me about $3.00. They have new 'O' rings , and they work fine. Best of all, I can buy them at the local auto parts store. Hope this helps. Ron

 

[norman]

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Hobie

I use the fram filter in my wing and penz10w40 car motor oil this last winter and plan on using castrol 20w50 motorcycle oil this summer and castrol 20w50 auto oil if wally world doesn't stock the bike oil. My old bike had 82000 miles on it when I got it last August and it now has almost 86000 on it. I'm not all that hot on being loyal to buying only Honda parts every time you try to buy a part from the shops they put it to ya. They wanted $30.00 for a fuel filter and I got one from J P cycles for $3.00 I also got my plugs at Advance Auto $1.50 each for the NGK's the bike shop wanted over$5.00 each for the same exact plug. You have read where the shops really have a field day for a carb rebuild/tune up. I figure if I can't fix it or learn how then I shouldn't have it. I will listen to advice and then use my own judgement . This is my two cents worth. I have a1982 Goldwing Aspencade

Norman Good Luck! And Good Riding!

 

[twisty]

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Hobie1 wrote:

Folks, e-mail me about what you actually use. I will not post anything you send me. Truth.

I did have my very trusted mechanic tell me that he recently opened a OEM Honda filter and it had F... stamped on the metal piece. I have no reason whatsoever to not believe him.

I'm just curious. I may very well use the F Word for my bike.

This isn't and shouldn't open up the damned oil/filter/plug/tire/battery/fuel debate.

Hobie, choosing an oil filter is like choosing a wife. Everybody has different ideas of what the ideal wife would be.

There is no way I would ever try to recommend an oil filter or oil. Personally, I do a lot of research before choosing either an oil filter or oil type. Usually the final decision is a trade off between availability, price, function, test results, & past history.

Remember you could remove the oil filter completely & still have an engine function for quite a while. It's the same with oil filters, some work better than others, does it make a difference? Not immediately, but over thousands of miles of use there is a difference. Good oil filters will stop the majority or the particles down to 10-15 microns, mediocre filters will stop particles in the 15-20 micron range, poor filters will only stop some of the junk. Problem is: not many (none that I know of anyhow) oil filters will stop particles down to the 5 micron range- Over time a lot of the engine oil related damage is caused by particles in the 5-10 micron range.

You could stuff a piece of door screen in that filter housing & it would stop some of the dirt & particles. Would it be efficient? NO, would you use it on your bike? (probably not). It's the same with oil filters, some just work better than others, in most cases you pretty well get what you pay for in both oil & filters.

Oil filters can suffer in two ways, one isdue to the size of the particles they can filter out & the percentage of those particles they filter out with each pass. The other is the amount of particles they can hold in the filter media.

I was in the auto testing business an an engineer for many years & have seen tests on most oils & filters over the years. I have also seen first hand the difference they can make on 1,000 hour tests & end of test engine teardown.

Is there one best filter? NO. Even the same filter brand can very in it's effectiveness due to the size of the container as some filters are sized differently for fitment on multi engines. Filter manufactures also can get greedy & cheapen them up to add to bottom line profits.

My best suggestion is to pick the filter you like, then track down the micron filtration of that filter& the percentage caught, & the amount it will retain. Then compare that data to others (it takes a lot of research & keep in mind things are always changing).

I won't tell you what filter I use as I don't want to start a war here but will tell you it isn't a cheap filter to buy.

I have researched a lot of filters & have data on many but one thing I don't have is the data on the stock Honda filter so I have no idea how it stacks up against the aftermarket filters (my guess due to MoCo profit margins is it is probably slightly below the middle of the filter pack).

A filter chart (it's a few years old though). When researching filter differences be sure you use the SAME SAE test to compare. Those SAE test methods change from time to time & there are different tests for different countries. High numbers on both charts are best. These are not GoldWing filters, just a comparison chart for reference.

 

[Hobie1]

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I've come to the conclusion that if we change our oil on a regular basis, use a decent filter, and are good parents to our scoots, we won't go wrong.

I'm going to go ahead and use the Fram and probably will change it halfway through the oil cycle. I don't run my bike hard and I think I'll be just fine. What the heck, it's only money spent to save money:clapper:in the long run.

Thanks everyone for your input. Twisty, I like your effort to add some substance to our discussion. Good enough for me to Getter' Done!!!!!

I do think that the arguments that get so heated serve no purpose except to puff up the egos of the people involved.

The weekend's here, I've got a 100 mile poker run to participate in, and life is GOOD!!!!

Oh, I've been married to the same ol' gal for 26 years and counting. The warranty hasn't run out yet:goofygrin:
Everyone have a good one!!!:waving:

Hobie

BTW, where's the MANA?? Ah haahaahahhhhhaaa:gunhead:

 

[Hobie1]

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BTW, the more I read about Amsoil, the more I'm inclined to check it out down the road. But that's another subject for another time.

Thanks again, Twisty.

Hobie

 

[revtech]

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ok heres one to heat up the discussion i was told but my grand father (long time Honda dealer)that automotive oil should not be used in bikesthat share oil with the trans and engine due to the fact that the oil is to slick and will sheer of the trans gears and wear them out prematurely. any one have the answer to this?

 

[twisty]

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Hobie1 wrote:

I'm going to go ahead and use the Fram and probably will change it halfway through the oil cycle. I don't run my bike hard and I think I'll be just fine. What I do think that the arguments that get so heated serve no purpose except to puff up the egos of the people involved.

Hobie, changing that filter half way through the oil cycle is only needed if your filter is not able to hold many grams of particles. Early changing ofa filter that can't filter out the smaller particles won't gain you much there. Where changing a filter half way through the oil cycle really come into play is on the newer long drain synthetic oils that can go for 20,000-25,000 miles. There is a chance in those long drain intervals that a filter could actually become too full of particles to pass enough oil to feed the oil system so the filter by-pass valve could open & allow unfiltered oil to flow in the oiling system.

An internal transmission motorcycle like the GoldWing is very hard on theoil & oil filter as every shift of the transmission adds metal particles to the oil that the filter must try to remove & store. In my personal opinion you would be money & engine wear ahead to take the money you will use to install 2 oil filters & install one filter of better quality.

Twisty

 

[twisty]

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revtech wrote:

ok heres one to heat up the discussion i was told but my grand father (long time Honda dealer)that automotive oil should not be used in bikesthat share oil with the trans and engine due to the fact that the oil is to slick and will sheer of the trans gears and wear them out prematurely. any one have the answer to this?

revtech, your grandfather told you basically correctly. I think you misunderstood his intent a little though. It's the Oil that shears not the trans gears. The trans gears are what shears the oil though. Oil shearing is the viscosity improvers breaking down & therefore drastically dropping the warm oil viscosity. In some cases 10w40 oil can become 10w20 oil in as few as 1,000 miles.

It can't be said all car oils do this but the 10w40 mineral oils are probably the worst offenders.Some synthetic oils like Mobil 1,Redline synthetic, Castrol synthetic,& Amsoil synthetic are pretty darn good as far as shearing goes & retain nearly 80% of their viscosity over thousands of miles.

Petroleum oils with large spreads between the high & low numbers are the worst (like 10W40). Petroleum based oils with a diesel rating (like the 15W40 oils) are much better as they use amore stable base stock & less long chain polymers. PAO based synthetics are the best as they use almost no long chain polymers so there isn't much in them to shear.

If you want to compare different oils, just look at the oil's spec sheet & look at the HT/HS data. The higher that number the less shearing is likely. Synthetics really shine in this department. Cheap petroleum mineral oils looseviscosity in aninternal transmission engine pretty darn quickly..

If you run an oil that is prone to shearing (like 10w30 or 10w40 car oils) it is a good practice to change them often.

Automobile engines are pretty easy on an oil so shearing isn't a big deal in automobiles, that is why most automobile oils are designed around long chain polymers.

There is a lot more to this oil shearing but the above is a quick look at the basics.

Twisty

 

[twisty]

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Hobie1 wrote:

BTW, the more I read about Amsoil, the more I'm inclined to check it out down the road. But that's another subject for another time.

Hobie, there are a few top quality synthetic oils out there & some of the Amsoil's are in that group. Again there is no one best oil so you really need to define exactly what you need & expect out of your engine oil then do the research to find the oil that matches your (& your engine's) needs. In my case I look for an oil that retains good viscosity as it gets hot but still flows good in very cold weather as I ride pretty hard & ride in most all temperatures. I also look for an oil with a high viscosity index & good resistance to shearing.. Problem is: finding the oil of mydreams that doesn't have a ton of friction modifiers in it that could cause me future clutch problems. Oil choice is series of compromises, what do you want to give up to get something else?

When you get ready to make the change to a syntheticgive me an E-Mail & I will furnish you some oil data that shows the attributes & shortfalls of the top 5 or 6 synthetics then you can make an informed choice based on you exact needs.

Twisty

 

[Gearhead76]

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My uncle's been using fram filters, and 20w-50 castral oil for ever without any problems, So that's good enough for me, Just got to change your oil every 2000 miles.

I've heard of lots of problems for people who use different kinds of oil at every oil change, you know what evers on sale. Find a oil you like and stick with it.

Well that's my 2 cents worth

 

[Silicon Sam]

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I've used all kinds of filters, and never had a problem with any of them, like so many others. I currently use Wix filters, and they have started to come in black (instead of white) with a plastic label. Peel off the label, hit it with some cleaner, and now it matches my bike. Fram orange certainly clashed...

Raymond

 

[SoulvilleUSA]

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This is a rather interesting discussion, and I would like to add my two cents. I plan to have my 82 for a good long while (25,000miles on it currently). I fully expect to get 100,000 miles out of it with proper care and decent oil and filters. You will notice that in the toys I list on my signature is a 95 Geo Tracker. It was basically all I could afford after the divorce and during a big change in carrers. I have run it on synthetic oil and very high quality filters.... it has 250,000+ miles on it... 3 timing belts, 2 water pumps, 2 distributors and sets of spark plug wires, 1 clutch... runs like it just hit the sales lot. I'm sure everybody is saying that that is great... here's the flip-side... there is practically nothing left of the interior, the suspension is shot, the paint just isnt' too great, and I'm on my 3rd vinyl roof. I keep it around to carry stuff I wouldn't want to put in or on anything else I own... otherwise it has by far served it's purpose... it is uncomfortable, shabby, and probably a little dangerous structurally. Here is my point... be realistic and pick maintainance products for your bike that will last as long as you think the bike will... or as long as you think you will run the bike. I now have spent several thousand dollars on oil and filters (and other fluids) alone on a vehicle that isn't worth $500 even if it runs like a perpetual motion machine...

Maybe I should build a boat an use the engine from the Tracker..... geez, I better get married again or I'm going to tinker myself to death.

 

[twisty]

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SoulvilleUSA wrote:

I fully expect to get 100,000 miles out of it with proper care and decent oil and filters.~ It has 250,000+ miles on it... 3 timing belts, 2 water pumps, 2 distributors and sets of spark plug wires, 1 clutch... runs like it just hit the sales lot. I'm sure everybody is saying that that is great... here's the flip-side... there is practically nothing left of the interior, the suspension is shot, the paint just isnt' too great, and I'm on my 3rd vinyl roof. I keep it around to carry stuff I wouldn't want to put in or on anything else I own... otherwise it has by far served it's purpose... it is uncomfortable, shabby, and probably a little dangerous structurally. Here is my point... be realistic and pick maintainance products for your bike that will last as long as you think the bike will... or as long as you think you will run the bike. I now have spent several thousand dollars on oil and filters (and other fluids) alone on a vehicle that isn't worth $500 even if it runs like a perpetual motion machine...

SoulvilleUSA, that's a good point. You could have just as easily used a lesser quality oil & cheap poorly built oil filters then spent thousands more in repairs & a little less on the maintenance products. You might still have a $500.00 vehicle but you couldn't say original engine internals.

Lesser quality oil & oil filters are a lot like smoking cigarettes. In the short term no big deal & even in some long term cases no problems for some people. The question is: the smoking statistics prove that smokingwill shorten your life. Same with lesser quality oil & filters,statistics prove thatwill shorten your engine's life, how much depends on many variables but it WILL shorten the engines life in most documented cases.

Twisty

 

[revtech]

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twisty i think you miss under stood what i wrote but thanks for your answer. i like to run srectro4 20 50w in my bike early and late in the year i have to let it warm for a few min longer but other than that it keeps my bike happy on the high way and in the stop and go bs that seems to plague every big city......thanks