Ok, I just want some opinions on when to change to synthetic oil ? My bike has 4000km on it (09 Softy) and I was going to put Mobil 1 V-twin in it from here on because of the heat with summer comming on. But, it is using a bit of oil (100ml in 1000km) and I'm not sure if I should stay with the mineral oil until the 8000km service ?  The dealer "of course" is saying don't do it, but from what I've read about Mobil you can put this stuff in from new. I tried doing a search but it doesn't seem to work ? Is anyone else having this problem ??

At the bottom is one of the pages (I've deleted the rest) I read when I was researching all this shit - even their answers conflict, but they all agree when you're past the break-in part of your engine's life you can swap...
www.roadcarvin.com/tech/synthetic-oil-during-engine-break-in

Thanks for the info, I don't know what you guys consider the break in period to be ? But it would seem the 4000km I have done is more than enough ? It was only that the dealer suggested the motor is not yet broken in and I should wait for the 8000km mark that made me think of staying with the dino oil a while longer.

Done

I like to run a mineral oil until 8000kms. This gives everything a Good chance to settle down. Then run a synth or semi synth from here. The Rock oil semi is a great product. As is the HD synth.

I didn't write this, but good advice nonetheless

The Evils of Synthetic Oil

Beware of synthetic oil, it can do terrible things to you and your beloved motorcycle. It will not only leak out of your engine faster than you can put it in, but it will also cause your oil filter to clog and implode, dumping debris and dirt into your lubrication system. Your piston rings will never seat and you'll burn more oil than gasoline. It also will make every part of your bike permanently slippery because of its linear molecular chain dispersion action. Then it will leak onto your kickstand causing it to retract automatically, dropping your bike on the ground! But that's not all...

Synthetic oil will round off your sprockets and spin your bearings. It will also splatter onto your seat causing your girlfriend to fall off in the apex of a turn and she'll never ride with you again. Synthetic oil coats your timing window with a whitish pro-emulsification additive that is both non-removable and highly corrosive. Synthetic oil will completely leak onto the ground overnight and your dog will drink it and die.

Synthetic oil will wear out your tires and make your battery leak. It will give you the desperate need to urinate after you put your full leathers on and then jam your zippers shut. It will contaminate your gasoline causing your bike to stall on railroad tracks and accelerate uncontrollably near police cars. It will make it rain during rallies and on weekends. It will slicken your timing gears causing them to jump teeth and break your valves to bits. Synthetic oil chemically weakens valve train parts and causes the clearances to change every six miles. Then it melts the black soles of your riding boots right before you walk across your new carpeting.

While riding past groups of attractive women it will cause both of your handlebar grips to slip off at the same time. It also causes your swingarm to crack, your studs to break, and your rotors to warp, and then it voids your warranty by changing your odometer reading to 55,555. It also dries out your wetclutch and wets your dryclutch. It makes your clutch cable fail in the heaviest traffic on the hottest day of the year while putting an angry wasp in your helmet for good measure.

Synthetic oil hides your 1/2 inch socket and puts superglue on your earplugs. Synthetic oil will scratch your faceshield and make your gloves shrink two sizes the night before trackday. Synthetic oil stole your neutral and sold it to the Chinese for $1.25. Synthetic oil will make you grow a tail. Synthetic oil will write long crazy e-mails to your Internet friends and then sign your name at the bottom!

..and now you know the truth

 

BTW, I run full synthetic in my bike

 Nice one Purnong.

 

Going to change over to Synthetic at 2000klm

Mobil1 of course,

Transmission Spectro 6 Speed Platnium

Primary Spectro Chaincase oil.

 

As others have said there is a lot of crap on the net andd remember that opinions are like arseholes - everyones got one!

Still, here mine based on many years of experience:

Harleys are a roller big end so only thing to bed in is the rings and maybe keep in mind the tight bore clearance to the piston on a stocker.

Personal experiences:

98" shovel head 50 miles after rebuild then drag raced it - no problems, no smoking.

Current 74" shovelhead bored a little loose at 3 thou (on purpose!) and plateau honed, run in was to the gold coast from Brissy. Got bored by wet and wild on the motorway and dialled it up to 100k's an hour. No problems at all, motor still running strong 3 years later and no smoking at all.

Racebike 160" nitro burner - no oil pump fitted, 1 litre of oil in bottom of cases and a couple of oil can squirts up the pinion, fire it up 3 times and idle for 15 secs then 30 secs then rap the throttle hard on the third letting it cool completely in between and that's it - run in completed and this only had to be done to bed in skirt buttons.

I've only ever used mineral oil, all have been good except silkolene which was utter crap! Original Kendall (green) oil was the best but they sold the name and its not the same anymore. Suprisingly harley geniune mineral oil is good enough to run top fuel harleys on, never had any problems with it.

Most ring manufacturers will say mineral oil for running in at least. A lot will depend on the quality of the hone and the angle of the cross hatch. Also get the cylinders plateau honed if they can do it. It knocks the sharp peaks of the honed cross hatches. Also NEVER bed rings dry!!

Saying all that I have honed cylinders in my lap with a ball hone and gone from bugger all compression before first fire up and zero leakdown after it!!

Make your own mind up and go with it, Harleys are simple motors for the most part.

I have no idea about the innards of a v-rod so can't comment on them.

Mobil 1 V-Twin is now in the engine. I never had any doubt about whether or not synthetic oil was the way to go, there is way too much evidence that says it is a far superior oil to mineral in every way. The only issue I had was with the dealer telling me not to do it because the bike would not bed in properly with synthetic oil and I should leave dino oil in it until I had done at least 8000km + it could affect my warranty but, my bike is now running about 10deg cooler and heading into warmer weather that can only be good. I think some of these dealers need to educate themselves a lot more because I ended up ringing 4 dealers and got 3 different opinions ?? Thanks to everyone for all the info.

 

I'm gunna stick Castrol syntrax (synthetic) in the gearbox just because it's dyed red and you can read it on the dipstick.