First off ill say i know im probably beating a dead horse but i searched the topic and didnt find really what i was looking for.

I recently bougtht an 02 f4i and i love it needs some work but having fun. The question i have is im not sure what the guy i bougt it from was running for oil, will it hurt my bike to use synthetic if he was not running it previously? Thanks for the help i love this forum great work lots of help found here.

 

You can run synthetic anytime you want. Just be sure to use the proper oil that is safe to run with a wet clutch. Most automotive oils with friction modifiers can cause the clutch to slip. There are some automotive oils that are safe to run, just as long as they are not energy conserving.

A lot of people don't run motorcycle specific oil due to the cost. I run amsoil synthetic motorcycle oil. I've ran Amsoil in many different toys over the years and it has always performed great. There are plenty of good oils out there for far less money, but I run what I've had good luck with.

 

This man speaks truth.

I run Mobil 1, which is pretty expensive, but has shown in independent studies to be pretty long-lasting.

 

use what oil you want, everyone will have a different opinion on the matter, but when you go to get oil, look on the back of the bottle for a symbol that looks likes this

if it has the "energy conserving" on the lower half of the circle, it will NOT work for your bike, but if the bottom half is blank then its ok for motorcycles.

 

Switching to syn. is fine, switch back and forth from syn. to dino if you want. There are plenty of options you can safely run that are non motorcycle oils like rotella 15w-40, rotella t6, mobil 1 10w-40 HM, mobile 1 15w-50, the list goes on. Most 40 weight oils are not energy conserving, but it's good to double check like others said.