This is my review of Royal Purple Synthetic Motorcycle Oil, 10W40.
What I did was not a mechanical fix. I had the transmission and parking brake "fixes" done. The transmission worked better, the parking brake, worse. I corrected the parking brake stiffness in setting by spraying some oil on the key/spring part that locks on the notches on the plate just forward of the parking brake pedal. That's another "who da thunk" that works wonders. I had to re-educate myself in setting the parking brake. Someone on this blog asked if anyone had ever heard of Royal Purple Oil. I had not, but I decided to explore. I went to their site and did some reading and was impressed (I highly recommend you do this and read for yourself). I called their free number, was transferred to a technician and spent probably 15 or more minutes asking him questions. I am not a mechanic by a long shot, but his answers were channeled to my level. I located a place near here that could order the Synthetic Motorcycle Oil, 10W40. This should not be a contested oil with BRP since they are now going to Synthetic Blend 10W40. It is not SM rated. It's hard to explain how much of a difference it has made. The best proof of the results came from one of our friends who owns an SE5. She is a rather aggressive, but good driver. We were riding with her and another one of our female Spyder (SM5) rider friends this weekend. We pulled off at a restaurant out of town and I had her ride our Spyder. She rode about one mile out and returned. When she parked you could see her smile through her full coverage helmet. She said, "This is beautiful! All you did was change oil? I want some!" After 1000 miles since the oil change on Mar 25, this is what I have noticed on our Spyder: the shifting is flawless, more responsive, smooth (gone are the burps...the only word I can think of...that occurred when down shifting automatically, just a slight notice, as the old automobile automatics used to do...I noticed this difference on the first 100 miles...the shift from 2nd to 1st was so smooth I had to look at the gear indicator, I thought I was still in 2nd!). When downshifting manually when you need a lower gear, like ride now, it gives it to you "right now", smoothly. I have not experienced any crawl in stop and go traffic (that's when the Spyder wants to craw when you are stop and go, and you are stopped, the rpms stay a bit high and if you take your foot off the brake it crawls forward). The engine is quieter. I have not had any purple (the oil is purple) oil drip on the right side scoop from the air filter box. Going up some of the long 6% grades on Interstate 8 east of San Diego I used to have to drop to 4th gear to maintain 65 mph (it just had a hard time maintaining speed without dropping rpms which dropped the speed...the engine sounded like it was struggling in 5th). Now I just twist the throttle more and the engine responds (again, I am not a mechanic, I can't explain any better).
That's a pretty long explanation, but that's how excited I am about the oil. And, no, I don't make money by sharing this. But if I can help make another Spyder rider happier, then that's what it's all about. If you would like to talk more about it to me, message me.
