A few mechanical questions

[Andrew Falanga]

Hi,

 

Everyone here has been most helpful, thanks. Following on the heels of the posts I made for oil and such, I'd like to ask one more question about oil. Several answered with the fact that they use Mobil 1 in their b-mers, but there seems to be several "flavors" of Mobil 1 available. What are folks here running in an R1100RT?

 

Second question, were could a guy pick up stock seats for an R1100RT? My bike came with a Corbin Day Riding saddle, and though I know it's more comfortable, I'd like to be able to touch the ground better (I'm rather short, only 5' 7"). Today while waiting for my bike's front tire to be replaced, I sat on an '03 police RT with a stock seat and though the seat was more highly mounted on the frame than mine, I was able to touch the ground better. This substantiated my thought that the Corbin seat on my bike is wider than a stock seat is.

 

Andy

[Devo220]

Ill trade you my stock seat for your corbin.

[T__]

Andy, as you noted there are more than a few flavors of Mobil-1 in the viscosities that work in the BMW boxer..

 

I’m sure there are riders out there that use all of the offerings with no problems..

 

As a rule for motorcycle usage you want to use the oil with the highest ZDDP content & lowest content of friction modifiers..

 

In the Mobil-1 series that would be their Motorcycle specific Mobil-1.. Problem is the motorcycle Mobil-1 is quite expensive.. The next best for motorcycle usage would probably be the Silver Cap Mobil-1 (15w50).. That is a fairly good motorcycle oil & lot cheaper than the Mobil-1 motorcycle specific..

Probably the worst for motorcycle usage is the Gold Cap extended range (15w50) but even that isn’t a real bad oil it just doesn’t contain as many anti-wear & anti scuff additives..

 

 

Twisty

 

[Feebster]

Using a motorcycle specific oil in a BMW is a total waste of your money and is quite the wrong thing to do. The reason the motorcycle specific oils exist is to cope with the very high pressure and heat generated by a sports bike motorcycle gearbox whilst also being of use to lubricate the engine internals at very high revs. Most bikes have the gearbox as an integral part of the engine and so to an extent would benefit from a motorcycle specific oil. However to put this type oil into any bike with a seperate gearbox is pointless.

 

Any good quality oil with the correct ratings is fine on your low revving beemer.

 

Al.