First Oil Change

Oil...Change of mind.

Having used Shell Rotella products as mentioned, at my first oil change last week @ 430 miles, (anticipating our 500 mile road trip through the mountains of Western NC). I changed myself with Shell Rotella T 15w-40. I ignored the fact that the book says 10W-30. I believe my ST1300 gave the option 10-30 or 10-40. Anyway hot days I justified my choice. Yesterday took the bike to MR Honda in Asheville for my First 600 service @ 953 miles, less the oil change. When asked by the service rep, I told him my choice He acknowledged , He has heard of the Rotella choice before. And commented, as expected, Honda might hold that against you if there was a engine warranty issue. Mostly. he expressed the fact that 10W-30 , should be followed, as that's what Honda engineers has deemed. That makes sense to me..
I know that Shell Rotella #5 synthetic blend is 10W-30. However for now changed my oil again @ 979 miles to Honda GN4 10W-30, with a new Honda filter. Probably with the next oil change I will reevaluate my options of 10W-30. Oils.
Guess I've got a clean engine now!!
Side note, kind of tight without the center stand. I've been using 2x lumber plus1x under the kickstand. Loosen drain plug, slide low profile drain pan , drain, remove lumber , to further drain ( fair amount ). I use the filter end cap remover , fit on first, attach socket wrench almost vertically up for clearance, slightly snug. Fairly easy!

I just completed the first oil change on my CTX1300. Went to Wal-Mart to get the right oil for the first time since I didn't have the right viscosity nor the right type. Read all I could from the owner manual and the service manual and though I could use different than 10W-30 if in certain climates or riding it a certain way to justify that I decided to stick with what the manuals recommended especially for the 600 mile maintenance. After my errand to Wal-Mart I still only had 591 miles on the clock but figured that was close enough. I could have taken a little longer of a ride to make up a few miles but family decided to stop by for lunch so headed home to spend a little time with the grandson and the rest and then sequestered myself in the garage to get dirty. Oil filter was on very tight so used my oil filter pliers type wrench to loosen it. I use a Bosch oil filter that is for both ST bikes and others and, since this uses the same engine, the CTX1300. It's a Bosch 3323 and is about an inch longer. I bought a few of those because Wally world was out of the SuperTech filters, both made by Champion and both really the same filter other than price. That extra inch is better for filtering but makes it impossible to use the Honda tool to install it, or at least get a socket handle or torque handle into that tool. I have the right tool that the SM recommends so went to plan B for proper tightening and used a crescent wrench to turn it on 3/4 to 1 turn after contact. So far it's working very well. It was actually easier to do the oil change, including/especially the filter change, than on my GW, ST, and Burgman. Did not have to remove any plastic as I would have to for all of those other bikes. And the oil filter itself was really not that bad to get at... not any more than the others once they had plastic removed... so I consider this one an easier oil change compared to almost any other bike I've had.

As was mentioned the oil/filter change needs more than 4 quarts to refill. In fact I bought a 5 qt jug and only have a few tenths of a qt left!

In my search through the UM and SM I found out that you are not to use oil that says "Energy Conserving" or "Resource Conserving" on that little SAE circle on the oil container label. The bottom of the outer ring in that SAE certification circle should be blank. Examples in owners manual. That pretty much leaves out all full synthetic and most other oils that I would use. I did find Chevron Havoline 10W-30 oil (red bottle) that was the right stuff, and the only one that was right per what I just mentioned. I think it would be ok to use full synthetic at the 8000 mile service even though all of those do say "Energy Conserving" on the bottles. May have to look into that issue some more before then.

Actually, the bottles in a usual shop will be something like "for Cars, gasoline/petrol", "for Cars, diesel", "for Motorbikes, two-stroke", "for Motorbikes, four-stroke" and "for lawnmowers and other small stuff".
On the second line, you usually get the viscosity rating, such as "10W-40".

In a more up-scale or fancy shop, things will get proportionally fancier with e.g. Castrol doing things like "for Cruisers", "for Tourers" and "for Racing" etc. It is also Castrol which has both 80W and 90W gear oils with the latter being "not recommended" for final drives though in practice (and especially in motorcycle final drives) the latter kicks the former's arse by a longshot

Finally, H-D themselves were recommending in the owner's manual for the Sportster to use "oil meant for Diesel cars if H-D Genuine(tm) is not available and you need to top-up while on the road". Presumably, in the US, "for Diesel" means "20W-50" which is what it was using.

Funny, in a way, that HD would have a recommendation for, or even have mention about, when they need to "top-up while on the road" and no other brand seems to have a need to do so normally.

Been doing a little bit of reading on the subject. Seems there are some who say full synthetic and/or energy conserving will not be an issue on a good conditioned wet-clutch... especially when new. They go on to say it's really the well worn clutch of about 25000-30000 miles that may show slippage regardless what oil is used.

Then there is the view on the other side that says absolutely not to energy/resource conserving oils and no to any oil made for other than motorcycles.

And then there's the middle view point that energy/resource conserving oils will work ok in new clutches but can cause increased wear (thus causing the poorer clutch condition at over 25000 miles?).

In the end it seems the best is to just use what is recommended in the manuals, 10W-30 non-energy/resource conserving oils, at least until further proof can be had indicating differently.

My other bikes didn't state these restrictions so Rotella T synthetic was fine. But oil has changed even in the last 5-10 years and now it's Rotella T-6 instead of just Rotella T and other changes too. I'll just continue to use the Chevron Havoline 10W-30 (red bottle) until I learn more about it.