additives for bikes

[coolfox1]

Has any one had any experiance of using additives on bikes / nsr 125's was thinking of either slick50/zx1 in gear oil or 2stroke oil and also redex or some petrol treatment in the petrol ?

I know some people dont really beleave in these things but used on my car and seen some difference but didnt want to do any damage by using on my bike in case the two stroke set up means they should not be used !

Thanks Ian

[MarJay]

Don't use any additives in the gearbox oil... you'll kill the clutch.

Also, I would not risk adding any kind of additive to two stroke oil, many varied and equally nasty things could happen.

Redex is fine, although it is really designed as a fuel injection treatment, I can see it cleaning out the carbs. Also I wouldn't use a capful in a tank like you would in a car because the bike tank will obviously be a lot smaller.

I hear the best kind of additive you can use on a two-stroke is a thing called a power pill. I hear it is very good for older two strokes with a few miles on them because it helps to de coke the engine.

TBH as far as I can tell a lot of bike oil/fuel additives are nothing but snake oil really. The best way to treat a two stroke really is to just thrash it to within an inch of its life! Its the best way to keep the engine de coked!
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Don't touch any of them. Plenty of them use PTFE and that will make your clutch slip like mad (and on a 4 stroke the oil filter will probably remove it from the oil quite rapidly).

Power Pills basically work as a carb cleaner. On a regularly used bike they are probably not going to have much effect, but they are cheap and worth a try on something used occasionally (or which has been off the road for a while).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[coolfox1]

[Slavo]

additives are a joke. If they really made any significant difference, wouldn't the manufacturer's of petrol already add them?

Don't you think that racing teams would also use them?

Don't get me wrong, they maybe useful if you run out of petrol and get a load of shit in the carbs from the bottom of the tank, it will help clear it.

My personal feeling is that they're a con.

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

Petrol companys DO use additives for their petrol... cleaners, detergents, neutralisers etc.

Optimax has stronger cleaning properties that others (so im told).
Different companies use different additives packages. My bike runs nice and smooth with it in.

I think additives are ok and worth it occasionally. When you want to treat your bike.

Genrally though both oil and petrol mixtures will have all the additives you need, but on a more basic scale. When you need somthing stronger additives work; for example fuel injector/carb cleaner if the're gunked up a bit.

More important is to service your bike regularly and let it warm up properly before thrashing.

[badlydamaged]

Ive found redex to be great for decoking an engine by filling the cylinder up with the stuff though the spark plug hole and leaving it for a few hours before kicking it out and starting it up again. It has worked wonders with my mates DT when it was choking on itself, and promptly raised the top speed by 15 mph (it was only a 50 so quite a difference). I dont know about adding it to petrol, Ive done it to keep the fuel sysrem clean but I dont expect it makes much difference. I do know if my bike starts getting coked up the first thing Il do is tip some redex down the cylinder, it seemed to have done the trick with the DT.
____________________
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[Claud 14.7 to 1]

Race teams probably will use an additive package already in their oil/fuel.

you must bear in mind that most will scrap the engine/ most/ alot of it after even one race, or a weekend.

They would not need the same additives that a reliable, modern would need. the engines we use run for thousands of miles, and genrally we want them to last a long time.

Race engines need to run making big power, under high strain, but for no way as long. i doubt ferrari cares at all if they cant re-use an engine after a GP, as long as they finish the race and do well.

[Slavo]

[Lee_367]

off topic: i use optimax in my bike and can notice a small difference in responsiveness compared to normal fuel, can anyone else notice a difference?
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?It?s mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack?not rationality.?

[clemsta]

I usually use Castrol SuperTT 2 stroke oil in my bike, but occasionally when i have to refill it and i'm at my local garage i have to use the cheaper texaco stuff, you can definitely feel the difference in performance, the texaco stuff usually makes the bike feel sluggish, the castrol oil seems to burn cleaner and gives better performance.

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

Yep lee, i put optimax in mine. i find the engine runs a bit smoother. i also like the sound of its cleaning properties, which numerous people have told me about. Mines a jap bike, so it may like the higher octane, fuel which they use in japan.

That there is enough to convince me. Nothings too good for my baby anyway, so i dont mind spending that bit extra...

i dont use it in my car, but thats becasue it sucks!

[Lee_367]

good, i've only got a 7 litre tank on my derbi so it only costs about 30p extra to use optimax instead of normal fuel, with me too 'nothings too good for my baby'
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?It?s mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack?not rationality.?

[dandit]

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

yer ive heard some good things about BP ultima (or what ever) i may try a tank full, but i doubt it'll make much difference to optimax, i mean they are both high(er) quality fuels. Give it a go though...

[Robby]

Oh this old chestnut.

redex and its ilk are just decoking agents. They dissolve varnish in the carbs and lift carbon desposits off of the cylinder walls. They do not add performance, so give your bike/car a shot every now and then, but not all the time.

Don't use oil additives in a bike engine. They don't work anyway. If you the inside of your engine to be good and slippy, do an engine flish every now and then, and change the oil regularly. Use a good quality semi synthetic or synthetic oil.

optimax/ultimate are just high octance fuels with more detergent in. You may get more smoothness and slightly better fuel economy with them - I know I do in my car - But I get about 3% better fuel economy, and yet I'm paying about 13% more for the fuel.

Oh and someone mentioned up there about Japan having higher octane fuel than us, they also get 95 octane as standard, and pretty much all japanese bikes are set up for 91 octane or better, so thats all you need. This is why you can pull off about 3 degrees of ignition advance on plain fuel here.

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

Is there a specific oil flush for bikes?

Can i put a car engine oil flush in there?

i do some part time work in halfords and its handy to pick up stuff from there (with discount) BUT they dont have bike engine oil flush...Only car flush, is that ok???

[Robby]

Well I used it in my VX and nothing bad happened.

That said, nothing good happened either. Nothing happened at all.

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

Hehe

[Wave2k]

would it be bad for my RS to put optimax/bp ultimate in, shop said dont put it in, but maybe 1 full tank will do it good?
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[Dazed]

I've seen in Halfords some additive thing that claims to remove water from your petrol tank. How does it manage to do that then (i.e chemically)? As well as - does it work?

[Kickstart]

Hi

Probably just methanol. Methanol absorbs water and will then pass into the carb, into the engine and be burnt.

All the best

Keith
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[Hex]

[Lee_367]