Yamalube vs Castrol, Synthetic vs Regular, K&N Oil Filter vs. OEM Oil Filter Yamaha WR250R

Related video:
How to change your oil on a 2015-2017 Yamaha WR250R(2008+ is very similar): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOH-5fHOgPYShow more

When changing your oil on a 2008-2017 Yamaha WR250R or XT250, what is the best oil? What's the best oil filter? I've now tried the conventional Yamalube and the fully synthetic Castrol. I've also bought the OEM Yamaha oil filter vs. the K&N. Please wade in with your comments and your experiences. I'll be happy to do more testing if this is what the people want.

I have done a lot of research as to why this is all true. Why do synthetics work so poorly in wet clutch motorcycles? Please note that Castrol I used was 10w-40 just like the Yamalube, but it was fully synthetic. The additives in synthetics make wet clutches slip. Even when the oil is designed for motorcycles. Some motorcyclists don't have the same results as my test. One reason could be that they have a motorcycle who's clutch is ready to slip and it has nothing to do with the oil they are using. Well, I've countered this variable. I switched back to a regular oil, conventional, or non-synthetic and my clutch kept getting more responsive over the next 3 weeks.

I hope my huge text block wasn't too confusing in the video. I tried to outline a lot of changes to the WR250R, but then I remembered that the intake recall was on the XT250, not the WR250R. You see, the XT250 is air cooled and the intake has to be made of more robust material to handle the extra heat. The XT250 having a lower compression engine, has less heat to contend with, but apparently it being air cooled versus water cooled was too much for it's initial intake design.

In the text of the video, in the limited space I had to write in, I referred to this as X&R or just R, so you if you know about these two models, it'd be clear as day, but if you aren't, it was probably confusing.

I have done a LOT more research since making this video and it looks like the Castrol motorcycle oil of 10W-40 or the Honda brand oil, is the closest to the Yamalube in design, so it'd be interesting to compare the results of these different oils. Does the most expensive one win out on top? Or, does their design being so similar make the differences meaningless?

The choice could be about expense or convenience, but until the research is done, it's all a new frontier, that I'm happy to explore with you.

The differences between the WR250R and the XT250 aren't that big in some respects. The WR and the XT both have 250 engines, but the WR is water cooled. The XT has a lower compression engine and the WR has a high compression engine requiring high octane fuel. There are a lot of parts which are better on the more expensive model vs. the less, but the less expensive model is also shorter so it's better for a smaller person. To read more about this, check my comparing these two great motorcycles with the CRF250L: http://autobravado.blogspot.com/2017/01/part-2-2015-2017-wr250rx-vs-2012-2016.html

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