Today I mostly made a chain oiler!

[Pheasantplucker]

Cobbled together a chain oiler with a dosing pump, cost me £8 for the pump £15 for the switch.

[Motofun]

Why bother if you're using o-ring chains?  I would think the mess isn't worth the trouble. 

[Ted Schefelbein]

I read the title and thought, "uh oh".

Figured a discussion about a ventilated block was coming....

Ted

[ribbert]

Why bother if you're using o-ring chains?  I would think the mess isn't worth the trouble.  

I'm told that if you put your bike on the centre stand and kick the rear wheel around a few times to get a feel for how long it spins for, then lube the chain and do it again, it will spin twice as long. There is no mess, just a bit of oil (it washes off), not sticky shit chain lube. Centrifugal force pushes the oil from the inside to the outside and takes the dirt with it. Next time you ride with a dry chain, check out how hot the chain gets after a while, you'd be surprised.

There is a member here running an oiler with 100,000km on an EK ZZZ chain that's never been cleaned, never adjusted between tyre changes and to this day has no tight spot (and it's clean).

Noel

[ribbert]

Cobbled together a chain oiler with a dosing pump, cost me £8 for the pump £15 for the switch.

That's really well done, love it.

Noel

[Pat Conlon]

I like chain oilers. For many miles I used a Pro Oiler set up.


I liked the double nozzle putting oil on my rear sprocket which would spread it evenly to each side of my chain.

http://www.pro-oiler.net/

[FJ_Hooligan]

Why bother if you're using o-ring chains?  I would think the mess isn't worth the trouble. 

The "mess" is for the unlucky guy riding behind the oiler.  Been there.

[ribbert]

The "mess" is for the unlucky guy riding behind the oiler.  Been there.

Something wrong there David. Mine is set for one drop every 2 mins and it feeds onto the rear sprocket face through twin nozzles, it's not even a drop as such. What little sling off there is, is heaviest in the wheel centre and fades to nothing on the tyre wall.

Not suggesting it didn't happen but it's not normal for an oiler to do that.

Noel

[FJ1200W]

Part of the joy in owning a motorcycle is creating stuff like that, and trying it.

I used to buy a chain oiler, I forgot the name, it was only like $25.00 delivered.

A squeeze bottle, some hose, the fitting at the chain used two small cable ties to get oil to each side of the chain.

Every time I'd fuel up, I'd give the bottle a little squeeze. That shot a dose of oil down the lines, and when moving, did a great job of oiling the chain.

It wasn't perfect, but it was not a lot of money and it was kinds fun messing with it.

[T Legg]

My 71 cb750 has an oiler built into the center of the primary sprocket . It does a fabulous job of oiling the chain but after 50 years of use the rubber portion of the oiler has hardened and it now oils my boot as well.

[Pat Conlon]

20 years ago I had a Scott Oiler.
It damn near killed me.
It was a simple device, gravity flow with a pinch clamp on the plastic line to control the amount of oil flow. The reservoir cap had a small vent that (when not plugged) would equalize the pressure within the reservoir to the ambient air pressure. Unknown to me, my vent got plugged.

I left my house at sea level for a Saturday ride in the mountains.
At about 8,000 feet the reservoir bottled puked all its oil in one gush...all over my back tire, on a mountain road.

Not fun at all.

Lesson learned: if you want a chain oiler, get one with a pump.

[ribbert]

I agree that an oiler over which dosage can't be finely controlled is a messy pia, but like everything else, they have improved over time. The one pictured below even stops pumping while the bike is not in motion and has on the fly adjustability.



Oddly enough, these current generation units are simplicity itself, an electromagnetic pump that pulses at a rate determined by a controller which is set by the rider, pretty much nothing to go wrong, this one has so far done about 140k.

[ZOA NOM]

Wow, lots of overengineering... just buy a can of the spray lube from RPM and keep it by the bike's bedside.

[FJ1200W]

Wow, lots of overengineering... just buy a can of the spray lube from RPM and keep it by the bike's bedside.

Greetings brother Luddite!