Any opinions on the Yamaha TRX 850?

SteveH says...

It wasn't priced any different to car oil, so I doubt that was a factor.

 

Apart from the fact that he'd be out of a job if people didn't buy bike
oil, of course.

 

IIRC diesel oils are high-detergent. If you start using high-detergent oil
in an old, dirty engine, it'll dislodge a lot of ancient, built-up crap, so
your filter may need changing more often, initially.

 

SteveH says...

You go on using car oil Steve, but those of us who *really* use our
bikes like to use the best available to make sure we don't have
problems. Just bear in mind that there are a fair few bikes out there
that live where the power is for a fair amount of their lives, a crap
oil will give crap performance when needed. For someone who bimbles, I'm
sure a reasonable quality car oil will be fine. I'm not willing to take
that risk. I don't scrimp for a few quid on things like that.

 

I ran a Divvy 600 (ok, it's a low-tech engine) from 10k miles to 80k
miles mainly on el-cheapo Homebase semi-synth, changing oil at 6k miles
and filter at 12k miles, racking up that mileage in less than 4 years.
Had absolutely no problems whatsoever with it in all that time (apart
from the pikey **** who nicked the CDI from it). Because of this
experience, and the advice from a trusted mechanic, I just don't bother
with expensive oil.

 

I change oil and filter at ridiculously short intervals... so I've got that
problem covered, I think.

 

Pip wrote in

I had a TDM, same engine & 'box. You get used to its little
idiosynchrasies. It was at this time that I discovered the robust nature of
Daytona boots compared to Dr Martens.

 

yeah, but it still invited the predictable "ah, but you do know this
is really just an Audi[1] in drag" comments[2].

[1] and "...VW in drag" from the really know-nothing tossers.
[2] even though it wasn't - it was the 2.0 924 and 924 Lux that had
the Audi lump, IIRC.

 

This is the thing I can't understand - bike oil is not hugely expensive,
even the fully synth 'fancy' stuff.
Unless you're using gallons of the stuff I really don't see how it breaks
the bank using the 'real' thing.

If you're doing thousands of miles - maybe... but even then - couple less
ciggies/kebabs/beers and you're done.

 

not really helping the statistics, as you had the same one as me, YTC.

 

dwb says...

I use the best oil I can afford simply because I do do thousands and
thousands of miles. My engine is stressed more than one that isn't used
much, therefore it needs looking after. I smoke roll-ups and gave up
drinking and kebabs to pay for the oil

 

Think about it