After many years of using and recommending the BelRay 10W – 40 Synthetic Ester Blend oil, last summer I decided to try again a fully synthetic oil.
My choice was the Amsoil Metric 10W - 40 variety with suspiciously many good reviews and online recommendations.
So after a quick oil filter and oil change, I noticed an immediate drop in Kawi noise levels! I wish I had a dB meter to verify that but my mechanic also noticed it and so I set off to test the cooler operation claims.
I followed my everyday route knowing that the radiator fan starts working at a specific point and time. When I reached that point, nothing happened. I was quite impressed and decided to stop at the side of the road with the engine running and it took two more minutes for the fan to start doing its job! Same route, same ambient temperature, same engine load, cooler engine!
During low speed and city riding, I couldn’t feel much difference in comparison to the previous oil, the gearbox felt the same, positive with the occasional thump, and the running, in general, was as good as with the BelRay oil.
When the new oil got up to temperature though, and the revs began to rise, it was a different story. On the highway, with a steady 90mph, the bike felt smoother and the running effortless, a very nice running feeling markedly better than before. I arrived at my summer house about 90kms away with a big smile on my face!
Sport riding was also very much improved as the engine seemed smoother and way more eager to be revved. I usually don’t enjoy revving my engine to the sky but with this oil I caught myself flirting with the upper rev limit just for the hell of it! With the oil at optimum temperature, the gearbox was also transformed, making clutchless up shifting a joy as the next ratio would click in place with the slightest of touches on the gear lever! During October’s lockdown I managed to escape again and enjoyed more than a thousand miles of empty, country roads, and the oil’s performance was identically good no matter the ambient temperature.
During my recent long road trip to Italy and Malta, the oil also performed excellently, the same effortless running and peace of mind even during long highway stints and a lot of climbing up and down the Sicilian mountains with the bike fully loaded. Both engine and gearbox still in top form after almost 3500 km and eight days on the road.
And last but not least, ZERO clutch slipping – ZERO leaks or oil burning (as per usual)! I had a pretty bad experience with a fully synthetic Castrol oil a few years ago and vowed not to use one ever again, but thankfully my curiosity got the better of me
Where I live this oil is about two Euros more expensive per liter in comparison to the BelRay and I also needed to buy three bottles of the stuff as the US quarts do not exactly correspond to liters and I had to add a few more ml to meet the exact 1.9-liter amount for the oil change. I bought two more bottles back in February and the already opened one will serve as the “Joker”.
In a nutshell, I am pretty impressed by the Amsoil 10W – 40 fully synthetic oil as it performed extremely well against the excellent, previous BelRay 10W – 40 Synthetic Ester Blend and it fully justified its higher price with tangible improvements, stability and longevity:
Quieter, smoother and cooler engine operation
Effortless engine operation under high load
Livelier throttle response and high-speed revving
Quick shifter feeling gearbox with the oil warmed up
P.S. As always, impressions can be subjective so naturally don’t expect an oil change to suddenly turn your engine into a 1.6 liter straight-six.
The bottom line is that I saw a great improvement in comparison to a very high-quality oil so I bet that the difference in comparison to a cheap, run-of-the-mill oil will be massive.
