Eds Oiler (Type 1)

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

Been meaning to get around to doing something about “automating” the motorcycle chain oiling chore for ages, and I now have. Not perfect, but a starting point that seems to work.

I was after a minimalist solution (which I know won’t be considered “cool”) because I’m cheap, I like minimalist solutions “aesthetically”, and if I had to fabricate something I was even less likely to get round to doing it.

Perhaps more importantly in this application, robust hardware coming adrift near the motorcycle drive train could be dangerous. One of the commercially available kits uses heavy guage wire inside a plastic delivery tube in contact with the rear sprocket, another one suggests you drill and tap mounting holes in your fancy, finely engineered, highly stressed alloy sportsbike swingarm.

None of that nonsense with Eds Oiler (Type 1). Here it is

Ta da!. (Cue dry ice and lasers)

Description : Fat “bubble tea” drinking straw clipped to end of half (assed) chainguard. Clip bends the lower portion back at about 30 degrees and secures the upper end of the internal wick. Lower end of straw has a piece of glass-reinforced polythene parcel strapping to spread the end horizontally, and is about 1cm from the chainwheel. Wick makes contact and delivers the oil.

I tried the thinner “standard” straws (with the bendy bit curving upward as an oil reservoir) but they didn’t hold position very well.

First implementation with a fat “bubble tea” straw was intended for static oiling on the centre stand and had a cable tie core. Worked but reversing knocked it off.

Second was intended for oiling while riding, and had a wick made from thin strips of plastic bag. Worked a bit but oil seemed to blow around, perhaps because the plastic wick flapped in the wind.

Current implementation has a doubled wick from a carrier bag string, with a braided outer and a parallel core. It seems to work well as a wick, and its stayed in place over a few longish runs, but due to a bad experience I’m parenoid about strong textiles near moving vehicle parts and intend replacing it with something weaker, perhaps wool.

The plastic clips are less of a worry, but they have a steel spring in them, albeit a very small one. I intend replacing them with an all plastic clip in the next version.

Oil is delivered at about 2 o’clock on the rear sprocket, not ideal since there is still some angular chain acceleration potentially flinging it off. Delivery at 12 o’clock would be better, the rationale being that the oil would get the maximum chance to “soak in” on the flat before the front sprocket, but this isn’t practical, since the geometry would require the oil to run up hill.

I just add 2-3 mls to the straw before I use the bike. If I add too much, it drips a bit from the chain when parked afterwrds, especially if I use the side stand.

The chain gets oily so I think its working, though (unless one rigged a camera) its difficult/impossible to tell exactly whats happening when moving.

Any questions?

2

It might be over oiling the chain.

3

Why don’t you just use one of many chain waxes, for better mileage, better lubrication, better dirt-shedding, and far superior wet-weather protection? regular oil is dinosaur material.

4

Have you thought about patenting your new device? You shouldn’t post it up here until you have. The Chinese will no doubt nick it now and produce them in the millions at a cost you can’t compete with. :eh:

5

I think it is very creative, but two things came to my mind right away. First, it really takes 3 min to oil a chain. You only need to do it once every 2-3 weeks. I think it is a little over kill. Secondly, It just seems messy and not to mention pretty ugly as well. It also looks like it could easily come off and splash on the road. It just doesn’t seem practical. Like I said though it is very creative.

6

Might be, though the amount of oil added is under operator control. The rate of seepage is adjustable by the size of the wick/number of wicks , and/or one can partially plug the straw with wadded plastic.

Flow adjustment is a possible area for development though. I have a few slightly more sophisticated possibilities in mind.

7

General engineering concensus (and specifically, Honda) says that oil is best, though its controversial amoung bikers.

8

Damn!

That means the Chinese will make it for less than nothing, paying customers to install it on millions of bikes in SE Asia. I certainly can’t compete with that.

But I’ll be famous, right?

9

3 minutes??? Who has three minutes to spare for something as boring as oiling a chain?

But anyway, I kind of agree that, if you do it regularly, manual oiling does the job, but I wonder what the evidence is that “You only need to do it once every 2-3 weeks.” The makers of commercial kits claim that continuous oiling improves chain life and saves power, but then they would. Actual test data is strangely hard to find on this fairly controversial topic.

Anyway, if you want to talk about “overkill” dont talk to me, talk to Scottoiler. Theirs costs 200 quid.

“Messy?” Well, the oil can of course be messy, but so far, this isn’t as messy as manual oiling in my limited experience.

“Ugly?” My drinking straw is UGLY? But its available in a range of pastel colours! (cant find a see-through one so far)

I don’t want to put THAT word in your mouth, but I suspect you might mean it isn’t “cool”. If so good, I don’t do cool, and I sure as hell aint no “real biker”.

“Could easily come off and splash on the road.” Well, it hasn’t so far, and we are only talking about a couple off mls of oil, but I suppose it is a potential hazard to another motorcycle.

A solution would be a separate, more securely attached oil reservoir, using a cut down straw for final delivery to the chain only. Alternatively I could take a longer wick out the top and tie it off, but then I’d definately want it to be a weaker material.

“creative?” Ta.

Edit: I have a more original/creative solution to this problem under development, but sadly it looks as if it doesn’t work.

10

I can supply you the clear bubble tea straw if needed. There is a little white or red stripe on it but hard to see.

11

I have a can of this white sticky stuff. It has a long plastic nozzle thingy on it that lets you get pretty much all over the chain. Get can. Squirt. Put away can. The end. Total time = less than one minute.

12

Ok, as long as it isn’t “cool”

13

Not cool at all. :discodance:

14

Or simply buy a Scott Oiler

15

OK, a very brief run-down on “The Competition”

IIRC Scott Oiler have two main generic kits (with bike-specific fitting kits)

Their basic one costs just under a hundred quid. Its gravity feed (like mine) with flow adjustable with a valve. Its activated by engine vacuum, (so it only delivers when the engine is running) requiring a tap into the inlet tract, if there isn’t a suitable pipe there already. You get a WHOLE lot of parts for your money, but I’m unconvinced that the word “simply” really applies.

The electronic one delivers a metered amount of oil in response to input from a 3-axis accelerometer. (Whoa DOODE! It’ll make my sycle axe-el-eerate 3 times as kwuicker! AWSUM!).

You get a lot of parts AND FLASHING LIGHTS for your money, but I’m slightly unconvinced that the main function of all this tech isn’t to convince butthead “real bikers” that its COOL.

Which it IS, sort of. And its from Scotland! (like me)

But its about 200 quid in the UK. Not bad given its sophistication compared to the basic model but still a lot of money to put oil on the chain.

There are other makers of electronic oilers. For example, The Pro Oiler http://www.pro-oiler.com/ electronically controlled oil pump meters oil based on revs (which seems adequate) and is a bit cheaper than the Scott Oiler at 170 quid.

The Chameleon http://www.cameleonoiler.com/electronically controlled pump kit seems to be based on a simple bike-model adjustable timer (though their website is a bit short on specifics) so is perhaps not such good value at 200 USD.

I dont have any reason to doubt these kits work better than my drinking straw, but I’m unconvinced that they are 200 quids worth better, or that I could justify 200 quid (more than I paid for the bike it’d be fitted to, FFS!) for the small amount of riding I’m likely to do.

And anyway I’m a punk technologist. I LIKE improvising half-assed devices. Buying something is a bit boring, as well as expensive.

The Lubeman kit http://www.chainoiler.co.uk/is a basic gravity feed squeeze and go kit at about 15 quid. The tutoro kit http://www.tutorochainoiler.com/ is similar at a similar price but valve controlled rather than squeeze metered. If I was going to BUY something, rather than make or improvise it, I’d buy one of those, probably the latter.

16

Dammit Ed, the consumerist system is doing it’s best to recover, and you’re here trying to knock it down again by refusing to buy things!

:wink:

17

[quote=“redwagon”]Dammit Ed, the consumerist system is doing it’s best to recover, and you’re here trying to knock it down again by refusing to buy things!

:wink:[/quote]

As the consumerist system recovers, the planet gets more fucked over. Cheques and Imbalances.

18

I like the straw idea over the scottoiler thing. It is too expensive unless you have a heavy moto worth the investment.

19

My first “customer” for a pre-beta evaluation (entirely at your own risk, naturally)?

Another niggle with the Scott Oiler is they sell their own expensive chain oil and say their kit hasn’t been tested with anything else, implying (though I can’t remember if they explicitly say so) that they might not warrant the kit if you use your own stuff. Warranty aside, I’m recycling used oil from the gearbox/clutch as chain oil, and I wouldn’t be so comfortable doing that if it was going through a pricy electronically controlled oil pump.

Don’t get me wrong, though, I’m a bit impressed, despite myself, by the “3-axis accelerometer control input”. The attraction, presumably, is that this makes the controller entirely self contained, so it doesn’t need any interface to the bike. I guess the sensors have recently plunged in price (Llary might know), perhaps due to applications like the Wii game thingy, making the cost of an inertial control system just faintly ridiculous rather than absolutely ludicrous.

20

Thinks: If you had a shallow cup or cone shaped outlet to your oil reservoir, and a ball-bearing that blocked off the outlet at rest, that might give you an element of accelerometer control. Would it be “3-axis” though? :ponder:

Would probably leak at rest unless specially made, but I’ll keep an eye open for suitable kit for improvisation.

There are lots of possibilities for adaptive control inputs, (eg, pendulums, suspension movements, redirected exhaust gases (themselves oil-rich on a 2 stroke…hmm),wind vanes, little windmills…etc) but they tend to be a bit incompatible with a minimalist solution.