I think whoever told you "conventional", may have meant automotive oil. Just use oil specifically for motorcycles and you will be fine. BTW, I have used 10-40 Torco motorcycle oil in every 4-stroke I have owned; never had a problem!

 

Trinity said use castrol gtx 20w-40 or 50. Is that conventional?

 

Ok, not conventional. This is from the manual

"Be sure to use motor oils that do not contain anti-friction modifiers. Passenger car motor oils (often labeled "ENERGY CONSERVING II") contain anti-friction additives which will cause clutch and/or starter clutch slippage, resultin in reduced component life and poor engine performance."

 

Well this subject is as old as time, but I can tell you from years of overhauling water and air cooled engines that when you try to use other oils than what is recommended by the manufacturer there can be damaging results. I agree there are some good brands out there that will meet or exceed the specified lube. But stick with the yamalube and you will be trouble free from oil related problems, and no I don't own a stealership or any thing like that, just seen too many engines ruined by cheap oil.. Trying to save a few $$$

 

Sounds like good advice to me.

 

Kendall racing oil, straight 30 wieght.

 

I have been using a high grade olive oil...I use pam to assemble the motor, and wesson oil for break in, my next move is to get rid of all that nasty wheel bearing grease and replace it with crisco.



BRAAAAAAP

 

RR1 - No problems. The only time my clutch acted up was when I was on a muddy hill and had to slip it a LOT to get up the hill. After I rode it for a minute or so on flat ground, the clutch acted normal again. How can oil be "too slippery"? Unless you put something else in your engine oil that will eat or gum up the clutch plates, you won't have any trouble with synthetic. The warning in your manual is for additives, not synthetic. If the synthetic oil has the proper SAE rating, it is good enough to use in place of petroleum based oil and will not void any manufacturer's warranty.

I use synthetic because it doesn't break down over time and it won't break down due to heat. I wait 8k-10k miles before changing synthetic oil in my cars and none of them have ever had trouble due to oil. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing about petroleum based oil that works better than synthetics. In fact, they add detergent to petroleum based oil to keep the sludge from building up when the oil breaks down. Make the leap into the 21st century and leave those rotted dinosaur concoctions on the shelf:-)

 

I was going to buy some YamaLube 20W-40 from my dealer's parts department like I have always used and Yamaha has dropped the YamaLube 20W-40 and replaced it with YamaLube 20W-50 and I says to the partsman I guess 20W-50 is 20W-50 and I could use Kendall or Mobil instead of YamaLube and the partsman says I should use YamaLube because it is made for ATV engines with a wet clutch and some guy used car oil in his Yamaha and ruined it.