Oil descriptions

Maybe this is general knowledge but I was in at Kawasaki Newcastle on Saturday getting some oil. I have previuously been running fuchs oil from supercheap, Comp 4 Synthetic (they also sell semi synthetic). The bloke at kawasaki advised that as I don't do track work, the semi synthetic will be fine for me, then picked upt he comp 4 synthetic. I pointed out that he had picked up the synthetic and he then explained that the semi synthetic is bugger all synthetic, the comp 4 is actually semi synthetic also, but has a far greater portion of synthetic - it is not fully synthetic (Kawasaki also sell the fully sythetic). It is a bit deceptive if your buying from someone who doesn't stock the fully sythetic or who doesn't explain it to you.

Good service from Newcastle Kwaka!

I've always used Motul 5100 in the roadies. I assume it's a semi synthetic (whatever that means now)

Synthetic oil is a waste of money. IMO
Ive used it when I was racing & ended up dumping it & going to a mineral oil.
Synthetic oils were mostly made for the car industry, to meet emission, & economy targets.
The thin 0/w40 type & even the 5w50 synthetic made for lowering emissions, & being able to stretch the service limits out far longer, as they stay cleaner for longer. Nothing to do with being better for your engine's.
I remember in the late 70's & early 80s, when they were running bikes for the Castrol 6 Hour, some teams tried
[Castrol R synthetic]to see if they could get a few more laps when using it. What happened was the bikes used huge amounts of oil & never ran in properly. Castrol were supplying teams with it, they gave them normal mineral oil & the problem stopped.
So IMO keep your money in your pocket & use a good mineral, or semi synthitic. Me I used in all my race bikes & now in my road bike Castrol Active 4T. Never had a problem.
Just my 20c worth..

Synthetic oil is a waste of money. IMO
Ive used it when I was racing & ended up dumping it & going to a mineral oil.
Synthetic oils were mostly made for the car industry, to meet emission, & economy targets.
The thin 0/w40 type & even the 5w50 synthetic made for lowering emissions, & being able to stretch the service limits out far longer, as they stay cleaner for longer. Nothing to do with being better for your engine's.
I remember in the late 70's & early 80s, when they were running bikes for the Castrol 6 Hour, some teams tried
[Castrol R synthetic]to see if they could get a few more laps when using it. What happened was the bikes used huge amounts of oil & never ran in properly. Castrol were supplying teams with it, they gave them normal mineral oil & the problem stopped.
So IMO keep your money in your pocket & use a good mineral, or semi synthitic. Me I used in all my race bikes & now in my road bike Castrol Active 4T. Never had a problem.
Just my 20c worth..

Sorry mate, but your 20c isn't worth .02c. You know things have moved forward since 1970..........

A good quality synthetic is well worth the investment. Perhaps in an old 80's bike they weren't, but anything from early 90's on, it is. I used a 0W-5 Diesther based synthetic in my racer and it never used oil (even when I only ran compression rings and no oil rings.) And whenever the engine was stripped there was no visible wear.

Perhaps you miss understood my post. I only stopped racing at the end of 2011. So my 2c worth might gather some intrest now do you think?
Either way use what you like, what would I know.

Synthetic oil is a waste of money. IMO
Ive used it when I was racing & ended up dumping it & going to a mineral oil.
Synthetic oils were mostly made for the car industry, to meet emission, & economy targets.
The thin 0/w40 type & even the 5w50 synthetic made for lowering emissions, & being able to stretch the service limits out far longer, as they stay cleaner for longer. Nothing to do with being better for your engine's.
I remember in the late 70's & early 80s, when they were running bikes for the Castrol 6 Hour, some teams tried
[Castrol R synthetic]to see if they could get a few more laps when using it. What happened was the bikes used huge amounts of oil & never ran in properly. Castrol were supplying teams with it, they gave them normal mineral oil & the problem stopped.
So IMO keep your money in your pocket & use a good mineral, or semi synthitic. Me I used in all my race bikes & now in my road bike Castrol Active 4T. Never had a problem.
Just my 20c worth..

Sorry mate, but your 20c isn't worth .02c. You know things have moved forward since 1970..........

A good quality synthetic is well worth the investment. Perhaps in an old 80's bike they weren't, but anything from early 90's on, it is. I used a 0W-5 Diesther based synthetic in my racer and it never used oil (even when I only ran compression rings and no oil rings.) And whenever the engine was stripped there was no visible wear.

+1 ,the reason they use full synthetic in high powered cars for emissions is the fact that you can run thinner oil as synthetic doesn't break down like organic styles under load . brock's performance forum has a great thread on using synthetic oils , Strika has just said the truth ! there's 8 to 10 hp pickup using full / thin synthetic oils without a blowup , for racing and wanting the most out of your machine ..