G'Day Trevor,
I do like the "Coffee and Oil Snobs" comment. Gave me a good laugh. 
I probably am overthinking.
But it is over 33 years since I bought the bike as a wreck, so don't want to bugger it in the first few days over something stupid. The cost over the years was enormous, and I won't have ready funds to rebuild it if buggered. Once it is run in, I may relax a little.! The next priority is high mileage.
I have had no RECENT experience in oil for Pommie bikes, so have been reading these stories with great interest.
I had an A7 back in 1969-70, and am sure I used to run it on any monograde 30 or 40 I could find. I stripped the engine twice in that 18 months, but looking back I don't think I or anybody else gave anything much thought as you say. After that I had a Matchless 600 twin, bought because it had a metalflake purple tank, aluminium guards, and grasshopper tyres. I did the ton on one occasion, and I swear the handlebar grips got to about 4" diameter and stretched my fingers out to that size. I was well aware of their crankshafts being likened to a hand grenade. What an exhaust note.! Again, just the usual mono 30 bought anywhere.
Nevertheless, I would appreciate some advice regarding running in.
I noticed that quite a few owners said they are running in with a monograde 30, then change to something more theoretical later. Given the high specs of modern oils, should I run it in with monograde 30, then change to the Penrite I have in stock.
I have a 20 litre drum of Caltex Delo Silver Mono 30 with 0.1% Zinc I bought for old my tractor - a 1958 Fordson Dexta with single clutch - I love it!. That might be OK for running in? The zinc will be great for the cams - or would the zinc retard the bedding in of bores, rings etc.?
I may be still overthinking.!
Richard, are you using Penrite 25W-70 or did I read wrongly.? Your comments would be most welcome.! I appreciate that once run in, I'd have to use the Penrite fairly quickly.
Cheers
Col
Well I am glad you like it, after all we do this for fun remember ?
Generally I run in on the cheapest oil I can lay my hands on which used to be Woolworths 20W 50.
I bed rings in bare as do a few others and found it a much better process than the old flood everything with oil process I used previously.
Once the rings are bedded in, about 15 minutes I go back home and tune the carb then change the oil.
What is vital is not to let a new engine idle or you will glaze the bores in no time flat.
So one with the riding gear give it a boot & if it can be kept running, out onto the road.
Way back I used to start the bike, then let it idle 10 minutes to warm up then pop in the color tune to set the carb.
Some of those engines required multiple hones before the rings sealed properly.
About 20 years ago I met ( on line ) John Healey who built a lot of world class race bikes and copped a verbal flogging about my run in proceedure.
Following the dry ring method, the rings bed in in 10 to 15 minutes then I properly tune the bike and change to the riding oil.
Now I have used just about every oil ( save fully synthetics ) over my riding life, starting with supermarket oil by the gallon which I distributed all over the roads of Southern Sydney metro.
Then it was BP Coarse + 30 in winter & 40 in summer . This is good cause it means you change it at least twice a year.
Then all sorts of weird & wonderful oils, special motorcycle oils like Bel-Ray , pink Enduro oil , Penzoil, Penrite, till we finally bought the 20w 50 in 44's for the courier vans.
From then on everything got 20w 50 , originally Castrol then Western.
Now I fix lawnmowers & all my bikes get 30W mower oil cause I get it wholesale so changing it 4 times a year ( or more ) is no problems.
Even better is the oil pump which came with the business because that makes oil changes clean , very quick and you can suck the gunk out that is below the outlet hole.
Over the years you learn a lot about riding old bikes economically.
You also learn there is no "magic" product although I have used Bardhal, and other rubbish, but nothing beats regular oil changes and the more often the better.
Rhett Dempsey changed my ideas about oil changes and chain lubing.
He used to pop his bike up onto the center stand stand then clean & lube the chain, followed by dropping it onto the side stand and dropping the oil,,,,, EVERY TIME HE RODE THE BIKE.
His A65 had a badly worn main when he bought it cheap, because it would not hold oil pressure and it still had the same bad main in it when he sold it 15 or so years latter with thousands of miles on the "hand grenade" bottom end.
The oil that came out was quite clean looking which he kept and when he had enough to do an oil change on the F 150 that is where it went.
People forget these bikes are crude, rude unsoficsticated and TOUGH.
Thus every time they hear a funny noise they pull it apart and generally do more damage doing so than leaving things alone.
These are noisy engines, they were designed pre WWII way before we had sewing machines on 2 wheels .
I ran my hotted up mongrel mix A 10 for decades before I took the maggy to Peter Scott only to find there was 12 Deg difference between the left & right cylinders on the points cam and that engine used push my fat bum ( thinner then ) well over the ton on Friday night drags, almost every week, hauled me off to uni, work & back home daily, down to Cronulla for a swim, out to the Oatley to ride with other misfits, race around Oatley park till the cops turned up and took myself & various girlfriends 1/2 way round the country for camping holidays, let alone at least a dozen rallys every year.
Steve had ridden his A 10 to 9 BSA national rallies before he finally found out it had the wrong AA unit on it and most of those trips were 3000km + fully loaded with riding & camping gear round trips. Then he put the belt drive primary on and that cut the engine noise down by 1/2. Then we discovered just how loud the rockers were.
I gather you are not far from retiring and your A 10 is a retirement activity.
So unless you become a rally tramp then you are looking at 1 or 2 club rides a month and because you have nothing to prove about 8 months a year.These will be mainly on back roads at or slightly below speed limits and riding like that you could do it with a hole in both pistons.
