Continued from page 14


This split is further reflected in the global motorcycle lubricant market, which is becoming more complex as OEMs and users look for very specific performance attributes, which appear to go beyond the specifications. Lubricant suppliers must ensure their products not only deliver against these diverse requirements, but also maintain a high level of durability across the three critical areas of hardware; the gearbox, the clutch and the engine.


Divergent applications The lubricant demands for motorcycles are considerably different to those of passenger car motor oils (PCMOs), and changes in legislation are increasing the gap between the categories.


In recent years, PCMOs have moved to lower viscosity grades for fuel economy performance, while the levels of zinc, phosphorus and other extreme pressure additives have also been reduced in order to tackle the harmful effects that they can have on after- treatment hardware.


While these developments have been crucial for the automotive sector, they have had a knock-on effect for the motorcycle sector, as PCMOs can no longer provide balanced protraction to the engine, gears and clutch of four-stroke motorcycles.


Infineum continues to test both PCMO and motorcycle oil products. In a recent research programme in Bangkok, busy motorcycle taxi and courier riders were used to help simulate real world operating conditions in an extreme environment. The higher iron-wear trends observed in the test results clearly demonstrate that PCMOs were unable to provide adequate protection to the engines.


Varying market demands


In addition to the geographical variances in consumer expectations and product use, there is a second layer of complexity resulting from the fact that the motorcycle market is split into various hardware segments, each with its own unique set of lubrication requirements.


The sports sector is typically seen as an ageing bike population. Motorbikes are purchased as a long-term, luxury item rather than a vehicle for the daily commute. Riders treasure their bikes and expect the lubricant to offer a high level of hardware durability to protect their investment. As such, many of these bikes only require a single oil drain each year, with the bike remaining unused for long periods.


In the transport sector, which covers the majority of bikes purchased in Asia, the focus is on low ownership costs and increased reliability. Oil drain intervals tend to be between 3,000-5,000km, and lubricants are expected to deliver both fuel economy and durability to help reduce running costs while increasing the length of ownership.


The scooter market has experienced fast growth in recent years with a changing demographic; although a slight contraction was witnessed in more established markets in 2014, most notably in Europe.


While the drain intervals and lubricant demands are somewhat similar to the transportations sector, fewer riders carry out their own maintenance, and as such the demands and understanding of lubricant requirements differ. Typically used for commuting, journeys tend to be relatively short, and the scooter starts and stops with higher rates of frequency. This requires the lubricant to deliver sufficient protection against engine wear, while also offering fuel economy at lower operating temperatures.


Ultimately, motorcycle lubricants must provide an equilibrium to offer optimum performance in the three key areas of the machine; the clutch, gearbox and engine. As riders understand the subtle behaviour of their motorcycle considerably more than car driver, providing consistent performance is key.


Grinding gears Many oils are not designed to offer gear protection, simply because the engines and gearboxes in cars use their own specific oils. Today’s low viscosity oils, which are designed to deliver improved fuel economy, may not offer sufficient protection to motorcycle gears and may even have the potential to cause gear failure.


Phosphorus is known to form a protective film between metal parts, which can provide some protection against wear and gear pitting. However, if the oil film becomes very thin, raising lubricant phosphorus limits alone cannot guarantee sufficient protection levels, and we know that the focus on tightening future emission regulations is likely to force a reduction in phosphorus application due to its impact on the catalyst.


Specification definition


While a number of oils, including both passenger car and motorcycle oils claim JASO (Japanese Standards Organisation) performance, they may not meet the real needs of the modern motorcycle. JASO provides a universal motorcycle industry oil specification that sets acceptable limits for parameters including phosphorus, sulphated ash and oil volatility.


Oil manufactures need to meet these specifications in order to achieve JASO certification. Unfortunately, in order to meet these specifications, some oil manufacturers will take an existing oil formulation and simply modify it just enough to qualify for certification – this enables them to minimise overall business complexity and cuts investment costs. However, in some cases the oil may not provide optimum performance for the three key hardware areas of a motorcycle over the typical 4,500km oil drain interval.


Addressing clutch protection In order to meet the JASO specification, oils must deliver clutch friction to 1,000 cycles (or gear changes), a stretch for many PCMOs, but a minimum requirement that many oils can meet. However, we estimate that this equates to only around 670km – a significant shortfall when the average oil drain period is about 4,500km.


From our experiments, we have concluded that the JASO T903 friction test, when running 1,000 cycles, only provides minimum standards for motorcycle clutch friction durability performance but does not provide an adequate assessment of


Continued on page 18 16 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.127 JUNE 2015


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