Hey guys, a few months ago (time flies when you're having fun) I brought my 1996 RVF400.
Had a two hour ride back home and she was glorious.

At some point I changed the oil to some 4 Stroke Castol Power1 GPS (as recommended by my preferred bike shop)
in recent times, Ive noticed the clutch seems to be a little temperamental, it seems to almost slip at times, and does a bit of clutch dragging at others, I've been playing around with the adjustable levers, to little avail, I've ordered a new clutch cable in case mines stretched over the years, just wondering what oils you guys recommend. Also how often would you replace the clutch springs?

Sorry I'm pretty new to maintaining my own bike, and already picked up the haynes manual - still reading through it
Thanks for any help, the bikes tacho says 20300Km - Seems legit

I will post photos when I finish restoring the fairings to their full beauty, she's currently got a tyga kit on her

more detail on "how and when" the clutch feels like its slipping.

a lot of old car based oils got some flak in years gone by in soem romours that still persist that they make the clutch slip (whcih they do as they contain moly grease and other friction modifiers to make better mpg on a car engine)

bike based oils made for wet clutches wont contain these aditives.

ive run just about everything, 10/40 semi-synth is fine for the bike and cheap too just change it at the regular service intervals or after 12 months if its been sitting around and your engien will live a long time

I started using Silkolene Pro 4 years ago because it was red...I still use it. It is pricey, but I have piece of mind. Only once did I have a slipping clutch - that was on my R1 previously, but I had done 50,000 vigorous miles on it by then...

Neosophist wrote:more detail on "how and when" the clutch feels like its slipping.

Under hard acceleration in first second and not so noticeably in third.
I've got a new OEM clutch cable on the way anyway, and will have a mechanically minded friend have a look at the clutch springs to see if they're in spec
I think I saw some honda genuine ones on ebay the other day for $75, however I might call my local honda and see how much they're charging, if its not too much more I'll get them from the honda shop

Thanks for your help, I'm going to have a look for some penrite 4 stroke oil, a friends running that in his '93 250rr fireblade and has no complaints!

i run 10/40 cheapest sem-synth bike oil (about 3$/l) in my cbr250 changed every 3000 miles.

Rock oil or Motul 10/40 semi depending whats in stock.. Never uses any and never had an issue with the clutch slipping or dragging.

I run Mobile 1 MX4T 10-40

Hi I use Castrol Power 1 in my nv30 and fzr400 and never had any clutch problems. I have run car fully synth in my klr600 as an experiment and it made it slip, but changing it back to bike oil (or part synth car oil) again stopped it.
Cheers
Ian

+1 neo. Run diesel oil myself without any issues but I ensure it is not the slippery stuff. It is generally much cheaper than motorcycle oil and can be a bargain when "on sale" and motorcycle oil is never "on sale".

Much discussion in USA over the years regarding using "diesel" oil as it contains all the best additives. Now most oil companies produce "multi fleet" diesel oils as suitable for diesel and car engines. Latest "low friction" car oils (SM,SN) are generally not recommended because the newer supper slippery additives may be an issue and some diesel oils are now using the "low friction" term too.

magg wrote:+1 neo. Run diesel oil myself without any issues but I ensure it is not the slippery stuff. It is generally much cheaper than motorcycle oil and can be a bargain when "on sale" and motorcycle oil is never "on sale".

Much discussion in USA over the years regarding using "diesel" oil as it contains all the best additives. Now most oil companies produce "multi fleet" diesel oils as suitable for diesel and car engines. Latest "low friction" car oils (SM,SN) are generally not recommended because the newer supper slippery additives may be an issue and some diesel oils are now using the "low friction" term too.

shell do a brand of diesel oil.. forget the stuff now but its very high in cleaning stuff (not really important anyway on a clean burning vfr) but it has a lot of anti-sheer and life-prolongers in it.. guy i know was running it in his R1 and changing every 10000 miles as he did a lot of european tours, put 50,000 miles on it with that oil and never had any hint at any engine wear creeping in, best of it was after diong 10,000 in the bike he'd put the drained oil in his car aha.