Skip to main content

Which oil to use?

With the pathetically low mileage I am doing I seem to hardly use any oil in Pepé! But I like to keep it topped up. I have always used a semi-synthetic oil in all the bikes and a 10w40 range oil.

The manual isn't all that helpful:


So having a look on the API website SH is a well out of date specification.


I know the Rocket is getting on a bit in engine terms but SH is positively antediluvian in comparison!

A bit more poking about on the various websites or forums it seems that Triumph shifted from Mobil to Castrol oils,

Armed with a 25% off "friends and family" voucher from fellow  Meldrew, Trevor Rice, I checked out the Halford's webpage.

I have ordered Castrol Power 1 4T Motorcycle Engine Oil. It's £39 for four litres and I guess it's formulated for motorcycles. The 25% off makes it less painful.

Not being an expert I have no idea whether the modern turbo car engine is more or less oil conscious than motorcycles!  We were told in the 80's that motorcycles needed a different polymer build up in the oil due to the higher revs and engine design. Truth or bowlocks?

Next.  Book the MoT for the last week or so of January and pray that it's not as freezing cold as last year!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Czech Invader Rally 2022?

Looking to next year for what maybe a jolly-boys trip to the Czech Invader Rally or what might end up a Billy No-Mates trip. I have been to five previous Czech Invaders but only once when I rode there completely alone. I did that in 1992 on my DR800SL. It's not something I would do again. Not in one hit. When I arrived I could hardly get off the bike I was so stiff for sitting in one place for hour upon hour. Those were all held at the same "rally-inn" in  Chudčice  near Brno. The last one I did was way back in 2004 with Claire as pillion. The BMW GS wasn't well received - not being a Suzuki! BMW at Rally. There is no way I'll be on the Kettle. At 37mpg it will cost a kidney to ride the 1700 mile round trip. So Pepé will need to be the bike of choice. If only I had cruise control as well to help with the saving of fuel. If I am to go over as a solo traveller I will stay in Youth Hostels. After all I will be an old age pensioner by then. We did that way back in 199...

New Battery?

The weekend showed how weak the battery has become.  Having had to use the dbPower unit on four separate occasions during the day in Belgium was the giveaway. We are in the second winter of this problem where the battery isn't strong enough to start the bike. In the summer it charges and holds that charge and although I keep the dbPower unit to hand I rarely have to use it.  But in winter it barely has the power to turn the engine over. It's simply "clunk". The lights come on though and that probably doesn't help. So what to do? Being a fair weather biker nowadays I won't be using the bike that often until the new year. Do I get a new battery sooner rather than later? It might end up freezing away in the garage. I have a garage in a block away from the house with no power, so a trickle charger is no use either. I have been looking at a replacement though.  A  Motobatt  with a high cranking power should be around £75. So unlikel...