Bugsy
New Member
I hate taking care of chains. I hate cleaning them. I hate lubing them, or more specifically, deciding when then need to be lubed. Every 300 miles? really? Every tank of gas? Does the chain have to be cleaned each time? What about when there is salt residue on the roads? What about when I ride in the rain?
For a fastidious (well, worrier might be more accurate) person like myself, it’s a lot of angst. I know that for the mileage I want and the option to easily change final drive ratios, chains suit me just fine. Also, when they do wear out, they’re relatively easy and inexpensive to replace. That was my rationale when I bought the NC700, and why I installed a center stand as soon as I got it. A center stand makes the maintenance chores much easier.
Still, I hate taking care of chains. Within a thousand miles of buying it, I was already fed up with it.
Enter the Scottoiler. This latest version is electronically controlled (no manufacturer who fits a modern fuel injection system wants you tapping into the intake vacuum), through a little aux display mounted on the handlebars. It can tell when your engine starts, when you’re moving at 20 - 30 mph so it can start dispensing, and of course it controls the flow rate. You can change the flow rate at the panel to match your riding conditions; e.g., more frequent drips for high speed, rain, salt. Standard is about a drip a minute. And the promise is, you never have to clean a chain again, and chains last 2 - 3 times longer, with less adjustment and less horsepower loss.
That’s for me.
What they don’t dwell much on is that it’s a pain to install.
Number one, I ordered the dual dispenser which puts oil directly on both sides of the sprocket, instead of allowing surface tension to move it to the other side. Recommended for rotten conditions; gravel, wet, etc. and besides, the single side, which everyone says works fine, didn’t make sense to me.
So one has to attach the dispenser to the swing arm, positioning it in 3 planes with enough precision to get the dispenser nibs to lie right on the sprocket but basically with no pressure on the sprocket, so they won’t be knocked out of adjustment if you turn the wheel backwards. Oh by the way, they have to be mounted rigidly enough so they won’t be misaligned by pounding on poor surfaces.
It took me two tries, at a cost of about 3 hours per try, to get a setup I was satisfied with.
Then, of course there’s mounting the display (don’t interfere with the steering, display visible, fish the wiring harness to the battery), and the reservoir (tucked out of the way, more wiring, filler access, delivery tube securely mounted to the swing arm - see dispenser above).
Then for the final insult, you have to clean all the previous chain lube off the chain.
I figure total installation took about 10 hours.
Today was the first test ride, about 40 miles on mostly secondary roads, not-too-good surface. The pictures above were taken just after the ride.
My first thought was, this thing’s not working. The chain looked dry, and there was no residue on it.
Closer inspection showed it’s working, and it really keeps the chain that clean. Note the slightly wet nibs, the wet sprocket teeth, and the occasional fling mark on the rim. That, according to the instructions, means I’m slightly over-lubricating the chain at a drip every 50 seconds. Makes sense according to what I have read.
And everything is still positioned where it started out.
Supposedly you have to replace the dispenser nibs every so often (they give you lots of material to make spares) but other than filling the reservoir with their proprietary oil, that’s it. And if you have someone else install a tire, warn them so the dispenser can be swung out of the way before the rear wheel is removed.
This could be good.
For a fastidious (well, worrier might be more accurate) person like myself, it’s a lot of angst. I know that for the mileage I want and the option to easily change final drive ratios, chains suit me just fine. Also, when they do wear out, they’re relatively easy and inexpensive to replace. That was my rationale when I bought the NC700, and why I installed a center stand as soon as I got it. A center stand makes the maintenance chores much easier.
Still, I hate taking care of chains. Within a thousand miles of buying it, I was already fed up with it.
Enter the Scottoiler. This latest version is electronically controlled (no manufacturer who fits a modern fuel injection system wants you tapping into the intake vacuum), through a little aux display mounted on the handlebars. It can tell when your engine starts, when you’re moving at 20 - 30 mph so it can start dispensing, and of course it controls the flow rate. You can change the flow rate at the panel to match your riding conditions; e.g., more frequent drips for high speed, rain, salt. Standard is about a drip a minute. And the promise is, you never have to clean a chain again, and chains last 2 - 3 times longer, with less adjustment and less horsepower loss.
That’s for me.
What they don’t dwell much on is that it’s a pain to install.
Number one, I ordered the dual dispenser which puts oil directly on both sides of the sprocket, instead of allowing surface tension to move it to the other side. Recommended for rotten conditions; gravel, wet, etc. and besides, the single side, which everyone says works fine, didn’t make sense to me.
So one has to attach the dispenser to the swing arm, positioning it in 3 planes with enough precision to get the dispenser nibs to lie right on the sprocket but basically with no pressure on the sprocket, so they won’t be knocked out of adjustment if you turn the wheel backwards. Oh by the way, they have to be mounted rigidly enough so they won’t be misaligned by pounding on poor surfaces.
It took me two tries, at a cost of about 3 hours per try, to get a setup I was satisfied with.
Then, of course there’s mounting the display (don’t interfere with the steering, display visible, fish the wiring harness to the battery), and the reservoir (tucked out of the way, more wiring, filler access, delivery tube securely mounted to the swing arm - see dispenser above).
Then for the final insult, you have to clean all the previous chain lube off the chain.
I figure total installation took about 10 hours.
Today was the first test ride, about 40 miles on mostly secondary roads, not-too-good surface. The pictures above were taken just after the ride.
My first thought was, this thing’s not working. The chain looked dry, and there was no residue on it.
Closer inspection showed it’s working, and it really keeps the chain that clean. Note the slightly wet nibs, the wet sprocket teeth, and the occasional fling mark on the rim. That, according to the instructions, means I’m slightly over-lubricating the chain at a drip every 50 seconds. Makes sense according to what I have read.
And everything is still positioned where it started out.
Supposedly you have to replace the dispenser nibs every so often (they give you lots of material to make spares) but other than filling the reservoir with their proprietary oil, that’s it. And if you have someone else install a tire, warn them so the dispenser can be swung out of the way before the rear wheel is removed.
This could be good.
