It's no wonder many of us get confused about oil!!!

[nickmaris]

Castrol Act>evo 2W-50 - description all seems to make sense

sorry about the title 20W-50

Product Description
Castrol Act Evo 4T 20W-50 GP Part Synthetic Motorcycle Oil 1 Litre. Product Features. Special wear protection additives for continuous Go protection * Outstanding oxidation and wear control throughout the drain period * Trizone Technology for protection of the engine, clutch and gears * Complies with requirements of catalyst equipped engines * Castrol 4T Motorcycle Engine oil with Trizone Technology exceeds, JASO MA-2 and API SG * Castrol Motorcycle Oil Gets the Best Performance from your BikeStart. Castrol Motorcycle Available Viscosities: 10W40 10W50 Castrol Motorcycle Oil Applications. * Castrol Act Evo 4T is a modern engine oil suitable for large mono and twin cylinder touring, custom and On Off bikes with air cooled engines. It is also suitable for the majority of classic bike requiring a high viscosity product with a strong resistance to evaporation. Castrol Motorcycle Oil Wear Protection. * The high combustion temperatures in modern 4T engines can cause the oil to oxidize and thicken resulting in starting difficulties and reduced oil circulation; this effect is particularly relevant to air cooled engines where the oil is subject to high thermal stress. * Resistance to oil oxidative thickening over time. Castrol Actevo 4T with Wear Protection Formula resists significantly longer than market general oils to thickening.

 

[Daffy]

I also have a 2000 R1200c and been told to use the same oil as the GS. A lot of hard earned cash for an oil change?
So having read all of your mails I think hein gericke 10 W 50 it is to be for both bikes

There made my mind up.........I think?

I have a 2004 R1200C and used Castrol Magnatec after a conversation with one of their tech's at Pangbourn (their R&D site), he reckoned it was as good as anything in an old Boxer.

I also used it on a Triumph 900 with the 3 cyl engine where Triumph recommended Mobil 1 but the sight glass was covered in emulsified oil after a few hundred miles, same guy reckoned that the oil was not running hot enough and said try magnatec, this worked perfectly. No clutch problems either.

I am not recommending using magnatec in your GS's but more saying that you can get too OCD about this, any good quality motor oil is going to do a job, just make sure it meets the spec.

BMW's recommendation of only Castrol is probably about free (or heavily subsidised) supply of oil dispensing equipment in workshops and a cash sum to be used for motorsports sponsorship.

Re the earlier posts about M series and approved oils, lots of OEMS do oil sampling after a major failure, but it's really to look for anything unusual that might give a clue as to the cause of failure.

It's very difficult to prove a spec of oil that has done a few thousand miles and very expensive to get detailed reports c. £20 for the std one that indicates it's wet and slippy, £250 for something more detailed and upwards of £1.5k for something specific and then the chemist will usually sit on the fence.

I would suggest that anyone using a good quality oil would be OK with a wty claim as long as the chosen oil isn't purple and smells of anchovies.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

All very interesting this, thanx chaps. I don't have a GS, I have a 1200RT 2005. I posted a similar question on BMRIDER.COM as I am technically a complete idiot (deliberately worded) & got similar advice.
Funnily enough I rang Pidcocks, who service the bike, and Rainbow & got 2 completely different answers. Piddy's went with the standard BMW suggestion (but did say it really doesn't matter that much) & Rainbow insisted I must NEVER use fully synthetic or 10W50 in my '05 Boxer.
On a slightly different note I rate the Service guys at Pidcocks, I find them incredibly helpful, but not the Sales blokes. The Sales chaps at Rainbow, on the other hand seem as if they really do want to sell you abike, rather than think they're doing you a favour by letting you buy one.
Keep up the good work.

 

[snerkler]

All very interesting this, thanx chaps. I don't have a GS, I have a 1200RT 2005. I posted a similar question on BMRIDER.COM as I am technically a complete idiot (deliberately worded) & got similar advice.
Funnily enough I rang Pidcocks, who service the bike, and Rainbow & got 2 completely different answers. Piddy's went with the standard BMW suggestion (but did say it really doesn't matter that much) & Rainbow insisted I must NEVER use fully synthetic or 10W50 in my '05 Boxer.
On a slightly different note I rate the Service guys at Pidcocks, I find them incredibly helpful, but not the Sales blokes. The Sales chaps at Rainbow, on the other hand seem as if they really do want to sell you abike, rather than think they're doing you a favour by letting you buy one.
Keep up the good work.

Apparently you shouldn't use synthetics on the older boxer engines in the first 10,000km, so after that one could assume it's fine to use synthetics.
On the new DOHC engines they are recommending Fully Synthetic from the start (after 600 mile service)