Cost Comparison: Dino vs Synthetic

If you frequent any kind of motorcycling forum, you know that oil is a topic that comes up an inordinate number of times, usually phrased in the form of “what is the best oil for my motorcycle?”

If you ask me, every time someone starts a new oil thread, God blows another crankcase seal.

Can you tell that I’m not a fan of oil threads?

Let’s look at the issue from a numbers perspective. Two riders, Dina and Syntha, both have Honda Rebels. Dina changes her oil every 1000 miles or so, and uses conventional (dino) oil which costs $3.00 a quart. (What, did you think I was going to switch it up on ya?) Syntha changes her oil every 4000 miles or so, and uses a synthetic oil formulated specially for motorcycles which costs $9.50 a quart. It’s a perfect world; both Rebels make it to the vaunted 100k mile club. How much did each spend on oil over the life of the bike?

Dina:
100k miles / 1000 miles = 100 oil changes
Rebel needs 1.6 quarts, so let’s say 2 quarts per change
2 * $3.00 = $6 per change
100 * 6 = $600

Syntha:
100k miles / 4000 miles = 25 oil changes
2 * $9.50 = $19 per change
25 * 19 = $475

Interesting! As long as Syntha’s confident that her synthetic oil will hold up for at least 3200 miles a change, synthetic oil will come out ahead in the money game. Conversely, if Dina stretches her conventional oil changes to 1300 mile intervals, she’ll be the winner.

However, one factor that we’ve neglected in this exercise is time. I’m not sure I even need to run the numbers because the difference in time between 100 oil changes and 25 changes is self-evident.

Dina:
100 changes * 20 minutes: 2000 minutes, or 33.33 hours of her life she could have spent riding

Syntha:
25 changes * 20 minutes: 500 minutes, or 8.33 hours

Very interesting!