Himalayan Diaries: High Performance Mantra with Shell Advance and Yamaha R15

Mineral engine oil or synthetic? Basic engine oil or high performance engine oil? These are the most frequently asked questions from bikers, when they take their bikes for servicing or visiting a bike forum, and I am sure that it might also puzzle you. Questions like, how it really affects your bike’s engine and performance and or it just about the oil change cycle, always arise in a biker’s mind who loves and cares his ride. To find out the difference between these two oils, we decided to take an on road test and the test bed was Himalayas.

We took a Yamaha R15 to Himachal Pradesh, where we tested both mineral and synthetic engine oil on the bike and measured the changes in its performance. For this, we rode the bike in different riding conditions like city, highways and hilly area and tried to know the difference between the two engine oils.

Engine Oils

We used both the engine oils for around 1000kms and studied the difference on the performance. We used Shell Advance 10W30 which is the basic engine oil. And for the high performance engine oil, we used Shell Advance Ultra 4T 10W40.

The Bike- Yamaha R15

For this test, we were looking for an agile and robust bike, and Yamaha YZF-R15 fulfilled all the criteria. Yamaha R15 is known for its racing pedigree, but the bike is a true tourer as well, and after this travel experience, I won’t give any second thoughts to its travelling abilities. The 149.8cc, single cylinder, liquid cooled engine develops a healthy 17bhp of power and 15Nm of torque, which is a lethal combination with its light weight, returning an impressive power-to-weight ratio. Three digit speeds can be achieved in no time and you can maintain it without any hassle.

The straight and wide GT road allowed me to achieve a top-speed of 140Kmph. The R15’s rigid Deltabox frame provides it better dynamics and the bike is highly stable even at speeds above 120kmph and it was performing well on the hilly terrains as well. It was taking all those hairpin turns with ample ease, maintaining its composure and didn’t lose balance. If a bike achieves that much speed, it should have proper braking as well, so the R15 comes equipped with 270mm front and 220mm rear disc brakes, which provide a progressive bite, however the rear disc brake tends to lock the wheel sometimes.  Overall, the bike proved itself a versatile one, and now I can say that one can go for touring on R15 for sure.

The Route

Delhi - Pathankot - Khajjiar - Dalhousie - Dharamshala - Delhi

The Journey

Day-1 Delhi to Pathankot - 510kms/

My day-1 was well spent on one of the oldest roads of the civilised world, The ‘Grand Trunk Road’, which is being used for last two millenniums. Linking more than 5 nations, the GT Road has been a part of popular culture and can be mentioned as the lifeline of India. Explaining it in words, English writer Rudyard Kipling wrote that  “ It is such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world.” So, it was feeling good to ride on such a historic road, I joined the GT Road from Delhi and followed it till Jalandhar.

The 6 lane highway is simply awesome and it goes through cities like Panipat, Patiala, Ludhiana and others. However, there was some extension work  going on from Panipat to Jalandhar and there were major diversions, when going through cities as the flyovers were under construction. However, this didn’t trouble me much as when you ride on GT Road, there are a lot of things to amuse you, starting from the food joints to some of the beautiful historic structures, everything is there! ‘Sarai Doraha’ a Mughal architecture situated some 25kms before Ludhiana, it is one of the Caravan Sarai made by Emperor Jahangir, where the travelers could stay. The building became famous after the Hindi movie ‘Rang De Basanti’ being shot here. It is a very simple monument having two big entrances facing each other and some 150 rooms with verandas. The building was made by bricks and follows a simple architecture. It is just on the GT road and worth a visit.

I with the R15 enjoyed the whole journey as the machine tends to achieve 120+ kmph speeds with ease and its superb handling made me to enjoy that zippy ride. The machine was running on standard oil, but it was good enough to keep the bike cool despite the fact that I was pushing it hard. Once you pass Jalandhar, you need to take Gurdaspur road to reach Pathankot, the two lane road was in good shape and it allowed me to continue the journey without much efforts. I completed this 510kms journey in good 8 hours. It was a joyful journey as both the bike and roads were good and the ‘icing on the cake,’ it was raining!

Day-2 Pathankot to Khajjiar -120kms

The next day, I started early as I wanted to visit the Shahpur Kandi fort. The 16th century ruins lies at 17kms from Pathankot. As the fort is situated above Ravi river valley, I was expecting a pleasant sunrise. I reached there at dawn, but they built a Govt. VIP guest house within the ruins and there was nothing left apart from the walls.

Yet, I caught a beautiful sunrise. Soon after, I started my journey to the next pit stop- Khajjiar. On the way to Khajjiar, I found another fort, this one was Nurpur fort, just like the Shahpur-Kandi, the fort was also not in a good shape and apart from few ruins and a temple, I found an upper primary school running in the premises. From Nurpur, I decided to take Haryal- Jot- Khajjiar route, which is more adventurous and scenic than the NH-20 which goes through Dalhousie.

The single lane road was in a decent shape, but the heavy mist and scenic surroundings didn’t let me pull the accelerator. I took 6 hours to complete this 120kms journey, but I enjoyed every bit of it. The valleys, pine trees, mist and drizzles made this journey an unforgettable experience. I thought that R15 will feel a bit underpowered with a total weight of 225kgs (135kgs of bike + 90kgs of mine!), but I was surprised to see that the bike was pulling well, even on the steepest inclines. However, you need to put some effort with the gearbox, as it was pulling well in 2nd and 3rd gear as most of the torque comes there. While up hilling was not a task at all, I felt some difficultly down hilling as most of your weight comes at your wrists and the rear brake tends to lock, which cause minor skidding on some events. Jot was the highest point of this journey at an altitude of 8000 feet, and level of fog was so high that visibility was about 10 meters only.

However, the beautiful ride was coming to an end and as soon as you are ready to enter in Khajjiar, you will notice a board stating that “you can see sacred mountain ‘Kailash’ from here”. However, heavy mist didn’t allow me to catch the glimpse of the mountain.  I reached Khajjiar around 3.30 PM and the atmosphere was magical, the place is a dry lake with a pond in the middle.

The lake is now turned into a grass field and its lust green surface goes well with surrounding Deodar trees and snowy peaks in the backdrop. While, Delhi was burning at an average temperature above 35 degrees, I was forced to wear winter wears in Khajjiar as the temperature was around 14 degrees. So, Khajjiar is a place where you want to sit in your hotel balcony and enjoy the view and the atmosphere.

Day-3 Dalhousie and Chamera Lake

After having pleasure of riding for first two days, it was time for some sightseeing and for that I decided to visit Dalhousie. The hill station is famous for its natural beauty and beautiful atmosphere.

The distance between Khajjiar and Dalhousie is 22kms, which takes an hour. There is a water reservoir called Chamera Lake near Dalhousie at 25kms, where you can do boating.

I went there and found that the dam is situated in a valley that made a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. So, I spend day 3, doing some boating and leisure riding in beautiful Chamba Trail.

Day-4 Khajjiar to Dharamshala 150kms

After chilling out for a day around Dalhousie, I left for my next destination – Dharamshala. Unlike the Pathankot-Khajjiar route, this route has more of down hilling. I followed Dalhousie-Dunera-Nurpur route, on which I joined NH20 from Nurpur. It is a two-lane highway and in a very good shape, which allows you to maintain a good speed.

However, it was drizzling that morning, which restricted me to low speed, as when you ride in hilly areas chance of skidding enhances. To avoid skidding, it is important that you ride the bike in speed limits and don’t accelerate or brake suddenly. Now, the R15 was running with Shell Advance 4T Ultra 10W40 engine oil, which is fully synthetic engine oil. You can feel the improvement in performance as the bike starts to feel smooth and the gear shift were sleeker now.

The 150kms journey to Dharamshala turned out more beautiful due to rain, it also raised the level of water in rivers and I also witnessed some eye-pleasing waterfalls. It took me almost 6 hours to reach my destination. Dharamshala is an old town situated at an altitude of 3500 feet. But the point of attraction is the upper Dharamshala, which consists of Mcleod Ganj, Dal lake and several other places to visit. The famous Dalai Lama temple, which is the home of the current Dalai Lama is also situated here. Once I checked in my hotel, I started exploring the area.

Visiting the Dalai Lama temple was a good experience as it is a symbol of Indo-Tibet unity and also has a nice museum and library, where you can enhance your knowledge for sure. In this whole journey, I was visiting a local market for the first time and it was time to collect some souvenirs and I bought a Buddha statue.

Day-5 Dharamshala to Delhi 535 Kms

After an extraordinary experience, it was time to head back to Delhi, and my route to journey was again the historic GT Road. I followed, Dharamshala – Kangra – Hoshiarpur – Ambala – Ludhiana – Panipat route and the roads were simply awesome. Apart from the Ludhiana-Panipat stretch, where some flyovers are under construction, I didn’t feel any difficulty.

This time as I was using Shell Advance Synthetic engine oil, the level of smoothness increased and I was enjoying it even more. One can easily get the enhancement in performance as the bike starts to run smoother. Well, the lethal combination of Japanese technology and English fluid mechanics made me cover this distance in decent 7 hours, which was a boon.

Verdict

So, my experience on this travelogue was ultimate as I got to ride on some of the most scenic and adventurous roads and the pleasant weather made me enjoy the riding even more. Apart from this, I got a chance to check the difference between basic and high performance engine oil as well. So folks, it is not only about the changing cycle, whether you are changing it at 2000-3000kms or 10,000kms, what matters more is the performance of your bike. The high performance synthetic engine oil results in a smoother ride, better fuel economy and a healthy engine for years.  Yes, it does affect fuel economy as well, it is a subject of a debate but I got a better average fuel economy of 32kmpl while using Shell advance against basic engine oil’s 30kmpl.

The Shell Advance Ultra engine oil helped to reduce friction that resulted in better clutch operation and gear shifts that made the bike run smoother and ultimately helped it to achieve a better fuel economy. So, next time when you visit a service station, you know that it is the Synthetic engine oil, which helps you to achieve better performance with your bike.