Motorcycle lubricants. Motorcycle lubricant classes or standards

JASO MA and JASO MA2 motorcycle lubricant grades or standards. Meaning.

In 1998, the Japanese Automotive Standards Organisation, or JASO for short, established quality standards or grades for motorcycle lubricants. This was necessary because, as technology developed, different engine designs required lubricants with quite different properties. These included the ability of lubricants to withstand clutch friction and slippage, the ability to resist engine wear, and the ability to protect the surfaces of gearbox gears from chafing. Until 1998, motorcycle engines were mainly equipped with automotive lubricants. As car engines improved, additives were added to car lubricants which were no longer suitable for motorcycle engines. This was due to the fact that automotive engines and gearboxes started to use lubricants with very different properties depending on the design and that the lubricant properties required in 'wet' clutches were not relevant for automotive lubricants because automotive clutches did not work in lubricant. Automotive lubricants were increasingly adding slip-reducing additives which forced motorcycle clutches to slip at higher speeds. There was a need for new lubricants and new standards to guide manufacturers in what they had to achieve. JASO (Japanese Automotive Standards Organisation) delivered. The standards are analogous to those of the API (American Petroleum Institute), but the JASO standards have spread rapidly, partly because the API has not been able to deliver standards for state-of-the-art motorcycle engines.

JASO has provided 2 main classes for four-stroke engines.

JASO MA, MA1, MA2 are the standard for lubricants for "single crankcase" motorcycle engines. These lubricants are used in engines where the clutch is immersed in engine oil. This class of lubricants has high static and dynamic friction and stopping indices which are important for "wet" clutch operation.
JASO-MA-2 standard lubricants are designed for "single crankcase" engines and add the properties required for engines with a catalytic converter in the exhaust system.
JASO MB is a slightly lower standard, these lubricants have lower static and dynamic friction and stopping indices than JASO MA. The lubricants are designed for motorcycles that use different lubricants for the engine, clutch and gearbox. This could be Harley Davison, BMW motorcycles for example. 

JASO has also provided lubricant classes or standards for two-stroke engines. These standards were needed because exhaust requirements have risen and two-stroke scooter and motorcycle engines have become very precise. 

JASO FA is the lowest standard for two-stroke lubricants, with certain requirements for kinematic viscosity, engine clean-up, ring-stick smokelessness, etc.

JASO FB is a correspondingly slightly higher standard for two-stroke lubricants than FA.

JASO FC is a standard analogous to FB on many parameters but with significantly higher requirements for smoke performance. 

JASO FD is a standard analogous to the FC standard but with higher requirements for engine cleaning, sulphate scavenging. 

How do I choose lubricants for my motorcycle?

The easiest and least risky way is to look at the grade and viscosity requirements in the motorcycle's instruction manual, or, in the absence of a manual, simply choose the recommended one from the lubricant manufacturer's catalogue.

How do I choose from the many manufacturers on the market?

Lubricants are chemically very complex products. Good base lubricants require a large number of good quality additives to be added to the lubricant, and in particular to be mixed in exact proportions. This can be done by many manufacturers, but the problem is to check that the right result is achieved. A comprehensive check of the quality of lubricants requires not only a detailed chemical analysis, but also testing in laboratories, in running engines, allowing them to run for many hours in various modes, then disassembling them, measuring scale layers and wear at many points. This is extremely expensive and can only be afforded by the major lubricant manufacturers. The smaller ones produce according to a recipe, knowing that only certain characteristics of the lubricants can be checked by the public authorities that actually protect and control consumers. This is a problem in all lubricant markets around the world. It is therefore wise to choose lubricants from well-known manufacturers for the modern engine. Cheap "XXX...lubricants" with a stated JASO-MA-2 class should raise doubts. A saving of €20 - €30 per year on lubricants can translate into €200 for a clutch replacement or, even worse, a major engine overhaul.