Re: [St] Oil Filter Search - Happy Ending (Long Post)

[Brian Pitman <snowsurfer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim & John - and everyone else who added to the oil filter story.

I just returned from a 3,000 km round trip to the Martimes to see my family.  
Of course, the "real reason" was to do a Triumph Road Trip and to see the Atlantic round of the Cdn SBK series :-)

The racing was superb!  The skies were crytal clear at Shubenacadie (a wonderful little racetrack 45 mins N of Halifax that is one of the Maritimes best kept secrets), a light breeze was in the air and the races clicked off all afternoon with only one red flag to temporarily slow proceedings. The two feature races were hotly contested by two old Pros that are both AMA veterans, Steve Crevier (who won the AMA 600 Supersport title many moons ago) and Jordan Szokes (he was briefly running in the 750 series with the Corona team when he ran into passport/green card problems (?) and was subsequently banned at the border). Pascale Picotte, another ex-AMAer who normally runs at the front of CMA events was in the race but still hurting from injures suffered earlier in the season and was not a factor.  Szoke lead most of the 600 race, was passed by Crevier with a lap to go, then repassed for the lead in the last series of corners for the win.

The scenario was very similar in the Superbike race with two other young guns mixing it up to make a four bike freight train all race long.  Crevier held on to the lead in this one and took the checkered flag.  I had spoken to him earlier in the day as he was limping around the pit area. The previous day, he had taken a evil highside on the back straight (which is anything but straight which, along with the elevation changes is aptly nicknamed "The Rollercoaster") and was in some obvious pain.  It was good to see one of the old timers show some grit in showing the young'uns the fast way around the track!!!

As for the road trip, the short version is that I left Ottawa last Friday and rode with a GTSer friend of mine from Kingston, ON (who was riding his FJR this trip). He likes to ride almost as fast as I do and knows the roads even better so he lead most of the way through the back woods of VT, NH & ME.  We switched bikes a couple of times and while I am really enjoying my ST, I have to say that the FJR motor has to one of the sweetest mills I have ever experienced in a sport-tourer. The "ride report" will come later when I have some more time.

Anyway, the topic is oil filters so I just hadda let ya'll know that I actually located a $2.67 SuperTech on my return ride in the WalMart on route # 2 in Newport.  I went in and, shades of Ottawa, I saw row upon row of Fram product.  Thinking that the $3 oil filter was only a mythical creation of some listers imagination, I scanned the bottom shelves.  Lo & behold - Supertech cartons!  I bought every Sprint ST filter on the shelf (which was only four) so I did the same thing at the Skohegan Walmart a few minutes later!  My apologies to anyone that went in to either of those stores late Sat afternoon looking for an ST7317...).

Here's the even better ending to this feel good story.  As I am standing in the parking lot in Newport trying to figure out where I am going to stuff the filters into my luggage, another '06 Caspian Blue Triumph Sprint ST pulls alongside followed by a white 1200 Sportster!  It is Bob and Marilyn, respectively, fellow Canadians no less (!) who are on their way home to Newfoundland.  Now here is a guy who really wanted to ride a Triumph since there are NO dealers in Nfld - an island province.  He bought his bike in Nova Scotia and was stopping in on the way back to have his first major service done.  We had a pleasant 20 min chat to discuss pros and cons. His major mod was installing small video cameras front and rear to record his journey up and down Mt Washington and other twisty sections of his travels!  Unfortunately, I had to press on as I was in the middle of a 15 hour ride (Saint John, NB to Ottawa,ON).  I gave him my email address so hopefully I
 will hear more about their adventures - and convince him to join our list.

Cheers,

Brian
GWN
'06 ST


----- Original Message ----
From: Jim Crate <jimcfl@xxxxxxxxx>
To: ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 9:54:38 AM
Subject: Re: [St] Oil Filter Search


> Greetings from the Great White North.  My logistical adventure  
> continues this week with a search for a better oil filter for my  
> new garage mate.  Scouting around Ottawa, I have checked into about  
> a dozen different motorcycle dealers, car parts suppliers and  
> department stores.  I even went to the Walmart in my neighbourhood  
> with great expectations of putting my paws on a carton of $3  
> (dreaming in Cdn dollars; 5% exchange, another 45% markup to print  
> the packaging in two languages...) Supertech oil filters.  To my  
> immense dismay, the complete shelf of oil filters, left to right,  
> top to bottom was comprised of Fram filters as was almost every  
> other store I visited. The only exception was my local CanadianTire  
> store which, instead of shitty $10 Fram filters, had equally poorly  
> rated K&N filters at $20 ea.

I don't believe the Fram filters are as bad as everyone makes them  
out to be.  I ran them on my cars for years with no problems.  On my  
Nissan 240SX, in fact, it was the highly regarded Nissan OEM oil  
filters which led to the demise of that motor (filter seal burst at  
high rpm, with all the oil being pumped all over the outside of the  
engine immediately), while the Fram filters worked perfectly for many  
years and thousands of track miles.  A friend of mine with another  
240SX had the same bad experience with an OEM Nissan oil filter, but  
he was smart enough to quit using them for good after the first time.

You should be able to find the Purolator filter.  The Purolator  
PureOne filter is very solid and looks like it is constructed very  
well, and is rated highly by the cutaway tests.  It is about $5 at  
pretty much any auto parts store here in the US, you might have  
better luck finding it than the Supertech which I believe is only  
carried by Walmart.

There is a comprehensive oil filter cross-reference here:

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/FilterXRef.html

and the articles on that site about oil are very well researched and  
worth reading as well.

Jim

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