Harley Oil, Any Good?

I got my bike at 3,500 miles with dino in it, and changed everything to Red Line synthetics. Kept syn in the primary and gears, changed back to dino in the engine only a few days after. I think HD wanted to change back to dino because of the dealership covering their ass for the warranty work being done. I miss the cooler engine, but not the added noise from syn in the engine. I'll stay with syn in the primary and gear, but will keep HD dino for now, since it was just changed a few weeks ago because HD was having a $30 oil change sale.

MCV is motorcycle oil
SVO is severe duty gear oil.
Amsoil makes a 75-150 that is better than the 75-110

But Redline makes some 75-250 gear oil for the trann.


I've been a amsoil dealer for over 5 yrs.

Just do not push oil.

Good to hear from you cardboard . Can you help with more details regarding the 150 weight and why it might be better for my Dyna?
No particular love for oil here..

You can run Dino Oil or you can run synthetic Oil. It doesn't matter.
Just keep it changed.

I run amsoil MCV20-50 in the engine.
I usually run amsoil SVO75-140 in the tranny,
And I was running MCV 20-50 in the primary.

Afer 30,000 miles of hammering my bike, the dealer put Formula Plus in the tranny and the primary.

It was stated a few weeks ago from a Harley Mechanic that his choice for the Tranny was Redline 75-250 heavy oil in the tranny.

Man thing is in the primary, to either stay with a dino or stay with a synthetic oil.
Changing back and forth can cause gum in yer clutchs and cause them to slip.

If you want to run Synthetic oil and can't find Amsoil or Redline, Wal-Mart has Mobile One 20-50 synthetic oil in V-twin oil
Just do not use the cheap oil filters from Wal-Mart.

I used to use Amsoil Oil Filters. And they are good and high micron.
But started using the 171C K&N oil filter with the nut on the end.

Drag Specialities also makes a Oil Filter with a nut on the end.

I often wonder if it was changing from the original oil to syn gummed up something and caused minor clutch slip. I'll get to the bottom of the issue eventually. Could be worn clutch plates, bad clutch adjustment, who knows? I may just hold off a few more weeks and change fluids in the Spring, since it'll be freezing here in a few weeks.

You may have to pull the clutchs and look to see if you have got sludge on them from going from dino to synthetic , back to dino, and back to synthetic.
And clean up everything if you did.

I would try adjustin the clutch 1st.

How many miles do you have on the clutch's ?

I've got 7,500 miles on the clutch, but do lots of driving in the city and use the clutch constantly in slow traffic. Now that I've been thinking about this, it's probably mechanical, because the clutch slippage happened after 3 adjustments, the oil wasn't changed in between.

In case i wasn't very clear before, it was only the engine that went from original dino>syn>dino. The primary and gear oil was changed only once from dino>syn.

No reason for it to be slippin, ck adjustmentand yer manual.

I agree with cardboard, no slipping is acceptable. When I do the oil change, I'll have them take a look at the clutch and do another adjustment if the pads are OK. I might do this at an Indy shop here called Halo Cycles, if Harley gives me any grief about using Amsoil.

Tell him he can hint all he wants about using another oil other than Chavez's HD oil voiding your warranty, tell him to read up on the MM Act.
I'm running Amsoil 20-50 in the engine 75-110 in the tranny and Type F ATF in the primary....all good.

Thanks guys. Lucifer, love that icon!

Is it better to just wait until spring to change oils, since there's only a few weeks real riding left before it gets really cold?

Not that I'm afraid of cold weather riding, in fact I enjoy it, it's that it costs me $220 month to keep it in a garage in NYC and I can store it at a friend's place upstate for free. That's assuming I get there before the snow and ice hit and prevent me from being able to ride the bike in. That happened very early last year (November). I'd like to ride until December 1st. Fingers crossed.