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Originally Posted by jcthorne
I have never thought much of Amsoil's pyramid marketing scheme. In fact its one of the main reasons I avoid it. Also their refusal to test per API standards. It may be a great product but they cannot prove it and I won't buy what they are trying to push. The rest of the petroleum lubricants industry works to a set of standards and fosters the standards organization. Amsoil works around it and will never be mainstream because of that.
Of course the product is neither better or worse based on the marketing method. And in truth, every company uses a form of pyramid marketing. Those who sell more product get bigger commissions. Retailers who purchase more product get lower pricing. Every supplier I use does this and I also do it with my products.
The API comment is very interesting. I've never heard this before but looking into it I find that it is true (for some Amsoil products). But I also discovered that the reason for this is not to dodge quality issues, hide defects or circumvent the system. Here is an article explaining why some Amsoil products do not have API licensing.
http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible_amsoilFAQ.html
This is what I came away with from this article.
API sets out Minimum Standards, which any decent oil will be able to comply with. Look at the cheapest oil you can buy and you will probably find it to be API approved. OK, so why, if it is such a low bar, does Amsoil not subject ALL of their products to this minimum testing. There are at least 2 reasons.
#1 - All Amsoil products exceed the API minimum standards. This can be easily documented and verified both with bench and actual road testing. We've done a fair amount of that very thing here.
#2 - API licensing is VERY EXPENSIVE! ($125,000.00 - $500,000.00 per product -in 2001 dollars-, plus an annual fee, with a 2-3 year renewal cycle) These costs would have to be passed on to the consumer. An API certification would not improve the quality of the product, but would increase costs. Amsoil sells a lot of product. But their volume is nowhere near the big guys like Castrol, etc. Much harder for a relatively small volume company to recover licensing costs.
API licensing is restrictive, not allowing for any meaningful changes to the product. Admittedly, this is a necessary aspect of licensing and does keep a company from cheating the system with an inferior product. But it also has the opposite effect. Amsoil would not be able to make any improvements without having to pay for another round of expensive API testing.
My conclusion; Amsoil lives or dies based on product performance. Many Amsoil customers have their oil tested on a regular basis. As soon as any degradation of product was detected, news would spread very quickly. Especially now in this 'Age of Information'. Most users of Amsoil have no loyalty to the product beyond performance (including myself). Amsoil has been making proven products since 1972 which continue to exceed most other options available. Whether or not a person needs this level of protection is up to their judgement.
A person may not like a particular company because of their marketing method, policies or management approach. But in this case. I think we can trust the product.
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To keep this discussion going check out out this web site for some interesting reading. http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/
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JASO MA1 verses JASO MA2
This is from reading information on the internet. JASO MA1 oil is good to run in wet clutch motorcycles. JASO MA2 oil is compatible with catalytic converters. I believe the 1330 ace engine has a pre-muffler box, but not a catalytic converter.
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Very Active Member
Baloo is my name. Spyders are my game. Well, it's a doo-bah-dee-doo, yes, it's a doo-bah-dee-doo, I mean a doo-bee, doo-bee, doo-bee, doo-bee, doo-bee-dee-doo. And, well, now. Ha ha! What have we here?
2020 Petrol Blue Metallic RTL
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Active Member
Originally Posted by BajaRon
Not trying to pick sides here. But based on everything I've read. Typical ratios run from 10% (most common) to a high of 30% synthetic in a blended product. The price difference wouldn't be that great if the blended were already 70% synthetic. Maybe he meant 70% dino and 30% synthetic. That would still put the BRP blend at the high end of the pack.
My (educated?) guess is they saw the XPS training film, which stresses that the BRP oil is 70% synthetic base stock, 15% VI and 15% additive package. Unfortunately, the oil they are talking about is the full synthetic XPS oil, not the blend. I haven't seen the 70% number used anywhere else in any XPS training or marketing video. Earlier in this thread I posted a link to a screen shot of the "mistake" that is easily made if someone is not paying full attention.
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/s...=1#post1034682
To summarize, no XPS training or marketing video (or whatever) has listed the % of synthetic base stock in the XPS blend. There is 70% synthetic base stock in the XPS full synthetic oil.
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Originally Posted by Xyzzy
My (educated?) guess is they saw the XPS training film, which stresses that the BRP oil is 70% synthetic base stock, 15% VI and 15% additive package. Unfortunately, the oil they are talking about is the full synthetic XPS oil, not the blend. I haven't seen the 70% number used anywhere else in any XPS training or marketing video. Earlier in this thread I posted a link to a screen shot of the "mistake" that is easily made if someone is not paying full attention.
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/s...=1#post1034682
To summarize, no XPS training or marketing video (or whatever) has listed the % of synthetic base stock in the XPS blend. There is 70% synthetic base stock in the XPS full synthetic oil.
Have not looked at any of the information. But it does seem odd, even misleading, to call a 70% synthetic a 100% synthetic product. It is likely that the BRP blended fits into the industry standard of a 10% synthetic / 90% mineral oil blend.
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When I had my harley.........
Originally Posted by Bob Denman
BRP oil is made by Castrol; using stuff from either Mobil or Shell...
That leaves a lot of room, for spreading the blame around!
I did a considerable amount of research regarding different oils. The short of it is, companies like BRP, Harley Davidson, Yamaha and so on, who purchase oils from oil manufacturers and in turn place their names on it, make their purchases based on the bid price of the oil by the barrel. If two or more companies are sitting at the table offering oils with competing specifications, it all comes down to the lowest bid price.
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