TT250: What is the Best oil for break in / long term lubrication

[blksheep]

Im curious about what China Riders members recommends for oil!? Break in and long term. CSC recommends using Lucas Oil top end lubricant but I would like to know what type of oil others are using as well as any additives. Should I change the oil as soon as i get the bike? It is arriving on 4/2/2019

[elkhunter338]

Not sure if CSC puts oil in these or if they come with china oil. I ran mine about 20 miles and when it turned a little dark, I changed it. I am a fan of diesel grade oil, running shell t-4 15/40. Most motorcycle blogs recommend this oil. Delo 400 is not recommended for wet clutches. I wanted to avoid the expensive motor cycle branded oil. I plan on running rotella long term unless they change their formula and it becomes not compatible with wet clutch.

So far oil looks clean with another 75 miles on the bike. Screen was spotless clean on first oil change.

[Megadan]

I will second the Rotella T4 15w40. That's all I ran in my last Hawk for the 4000 miles I had it before some dick helped themselves to it, and it is currently what I am running in my new Hawk. Rotella T4 is actually a great oil for these engines. It has a high ZDDP content which is good for the solid tappet camshaft in the motor, a good detergent package, meets all specifications for these engines, and it's easy to find and affordable.

I stuck to 500-800 mile oil change intervals once break in was over. It sounds excessive, but the small quantity of oil in these engines use takes a lot of abuse from heat and gearbox duty, and it's not an unusual interval for most small engines like this.


If you want to spend the extra money and run synthetic there are a ton of good options out there. Want to run Lucas, go for it. Motul is my favorite go to for synthetic 4T oils.

The best wisdom I can give you about what the best oil is for an engine... clean oil. Change the oil regularly and it really doesn't matter what you run. Especially not in a motor based off of a design intended for a life of neglect and abuse in third world countries.

[OneLeggedRider]

I run the Rotella t4 in all my bikes. Good oil for a good price and you can find it anywhere, even the Dollar store carries it and it's JASO rated for wet clutches.

[elkhunter338]

Oh no, shell is not china oil these bikes won't like.

[Red Hawk]

I have run synthetic Mobile 1 15w-40 it's the not energy conservation it's the thick stuff for over 20 years in 4 bikes. The engines run very noticibly cooler even on slow hilly woods trails 105 days, air cooled or liquid. The transitions always shifted soother to the point I could tell by feel what was in the case. Ya I know it's not wet clutch rated with a motorcycle on a race track on the packaging. But I have beat them bikes like they were rented. Never had a clutch slip, on 250cc bikes there's not that much HP.

On the bikes that had liquid cooled with a radiator fan on thermostat. Once you changed to mobile 1 the fan never tripped on after that.

Remember oil is so cheap it's disposable it's the parts and labor that are expensive in the end.

[BitcoinDood]

Originally Posted by blksheep

Im curious about what China Riders members recommends for oil!? Break in and long term. CSC recommends using Lucas Oil top end lubricant but I would like to know what type of oil others are using as well as any additives. Should I change the oil as soon as i get the bike? It is arriving on 4/2/2019

I used the stock oil for the first 300 miles. If I recall, it think it was suggested in the paperwork that came with the bike. I also bought the Lucas fuel additive, and ran that in each tank of gas for the first thousand miles.



After the initial 300 mile break in I switched to Honda GN-4 just because that's what I run in my Shadow and had the extra bottles laying around. Expensive oil, but the stuff works great.



I do regular oil changes at least every 1000 miles.



Good luck with the new TT250. You're going to have a blast. I absolutely love mine!

[roundhouse]

I ran rotella T4 to start now T6 (synthetic) only because I got the 2 jugs cheap.

[blksheep]

Thank you all for the input. I will be using the Rotella T4 15W-40. This a great community and I look forward to posting about my new TT250.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Red Hawk

Remember oil is so cheap it's disposable it's the parts and labor that are expensive in the end.

Well, the labor is at least. The parts on these bikes are pretty cheap lol.

Originally Posted by blksheep

Thank you all for the input. I will be using the Rotella T4 15W-40. This a great community and I look forward to posting about my new TT250.

Not a problem. Don't feel like you have to stick to just the T4 if you feel like exerimenting a bit. The Rotella T4 is appealing because it gets the job done and it's wallet friendly. T4 can at least be a good break in oil for the first 1000 miles, and then you could switch it up If you get the desire to run a synthetic, they do have advantages.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by roundhouse

I ran rotella T4 to start now T6 (synthetic) only because I got the 2 jugs cheap.

Thre are very good reasons for changing to T6 after, say, 500 miles (NOT kilometers, 800 km's is close enough to 500 miles). Full synthetic oils handle heat better and has more shear strength to deal with the oil slicing and dicing going on in the transmission and primary drive gears. T6 is also wet clutch friendly...ARH

[elkhunter338]

Originally Posted by Ariel Red Hunter

Thre are very good reasons for changing to T6 after, say, 500 miles (NOT kilometers, 800 km's is close enough to 500 miles). Full synthetic oils handle heat better and has more shear strength to deal with the oil slicing and dicing going on in the transmission and primary drive gears. T6 is also wet clutch friendly...ARH

Don't forget better cold weather starting if you run your bike when it's cold out.

[patrickjohn]

Im running cheap motor tech 10w 40 from walmart in most of my engines, now im wondering if its a problem for any of the clutches. So far everything runs exactly the same as when i used expenive oil. No clutch slipping on anything

[2LZ]

I run the Rotella T4 15w/40. Works fine.
I'd love to run the Supertech. Keep us posted patrickjohn.
When I was a kid, I ran whatever was on my dad's shelf. Never had a problem but I don't think a Yamaha 80 had enough gusto to spin a clutch, regardless of oil. ;-)

[Megadan]

A gallon of Rotella T4 is only like 1 buck more than Supertech oil. I am all for saving money but even I will spend the extra buck on the JASO MA2 rating onthe bottle of Rotella.