For the last 20+years I've only had shaft drives bikes because I hated doing chain maintenance, until I bought a Triumph and now the chain on my Tiger needs replacing and I'm thinking about getting a Scottoiler for the bike, but have no idea on if they are any good. Someone told me that they didn't need to adjust their chain in 1,000 miles, then another person said they clog up.
They work brilliantly and would not have a chain drive without one. Chain adjustment is usually done when I change the tyres! Had my first one on a RF900 many years back, chain lasted 30k miles and was still going fine when I sold it. Tiger 885 ditto. TDM 900 lasted 30k too, second chain still fine when I sold the bike at 40k. Current bike Tiger 1050, 20k miles and chain good. Tyres lasting 5 to 6k On the Tiger and no need to adjust the chain between tyres. I can't rate them highly enough. Don't bother with twin feeds though, it just clogged up on the inside but that might be just me or the fact it was rubbing on the sprocket! The oil in the standard reservoir usually last 500 miles, but that depends on the weather - in the wet you might need to turn it up.
My bad memories go back to the 80's dispatching a Honda CB250RS and replacing the chain every six weeks, that's when I bought aCX500 and thought F?$@ these chains
I'm a scottoiler fan, and have the electric version on my Varadero.
It doesn't excuse you from cleaning the chain regularly though, or pretty soon you're just dripping oil onto dirt and it's not going to penetrate the filth and reach the chain where it's actually needed.
The main problem I have with doing it manually Havfun is, er,doing it! An automatic oiler is pretty much fit and forget which is right for an idle sod like me. It only takes 500 miles of dry chain to knacker it. A long camping weekend can easily hit that let alone a weeks holiday. I know theoretically I could clean/oil the chain at the campsite or hotel but when the bar is calling....
only trouble with fit and forget is you forget to fill it up same as the two stroke bikes with seperate oil tank they rembered about feeding it fuel and il do the oil tank at weekend they were two buizzy riding them untill the squeeeking stop sound you got the oh dam i forgot to do that again
Thanks all for the advice. It was rowanblossom who really sold me on the idea with no more manky nails. I bought a touring one today so even lest time mucking about with the chain and more time in the pub with the likes of Steve H. And XJ I know how jealous you are of my lovely manicured nails.
Scot oiler fan for 30 years. If you run a bit of the clear tubing in clear site. Ya can spot when a topup is due. I keep a small oil btl under mi seat. Any oil on your bike will wipe off with a baby wipe.
Scotoiler worth every penny(especially when gotal injector free) fitted one to my Tiger 1050 last year main body fitted snuggly under seat chain seemed to need less adjustment also after fitting it.