Hawke Oiler Installed

I looked at scott oilers, and almost ordered one. After reading about various other peoples experiences with them, I decided against. Although the valve on the scott oiler is vacuum operated, the actual operation is simply a metered orifice. So you have to be very careful about viscosity and temperature to get the things to drip just how you want them to drip.

For a few bucks more I got the hawke oiler. This is an electrically operated positive displacement pump. Pushing the button once gives you a fixed quantity of whatever oil you chose, regardless of temperature.

I ordered directly from the hawkeoiler website. My experiences were similar to many others. The owner, John Laurenson, was a bit slow to respond and ship. After a week I had to prod him to get an acknowledgement of the order. But it did finally arrive.

From the news groups I found that there were some technical teething problems. The version of the pump I got has all the fixes, including the very important back pressure valve.

The install was pretty straight forward. Anyone who knows how to use a multimeter can handle it. The only head scratcher is the bike specific problem of how to route the oil lines.

Once installed, the product works exactly as hoped. One button push, 6 drops of oil. No problem. No more cleaning chain wax off the chain.

For a few dollars more, the hawke oiler is also available from the riderwarehouse/aerostich catalog. Even knowing the issues some folks have had buying directly from John, I bought it directly from him instead of aerostich. Being the manager of a small business myself, I am sympathetic to the problems of manufacturing product and handling all the transaction paperwork. I also figured John makes more money when I buy direct from him. Again, as a small business man, I want to see the little guy/invertor get his due.

Bottom line, unless you really really like manually oiling your chain every couple hundred miles or own a motorcycle chain factory, you want this product.

Steve Sykes
01 VFR

 

What is the hawke oiler website? And how much was it?

Thanx

2000 Yellow VFR pick it up March 15th 8)

 

Howdy,

We need pictures

Adios,

 

Good to know! I was looking at the Aerostitch catalog just this afternoon. I was looking at the Scottoiler and saw the Hawke unit. I had better take a closer look.

 

Follow Up

3 years later, I'm following up on my original post (formerly known as Steve781, but I lost that password).

I've abandoned my hawke oiler. The check valve didn't hold up, and oil would flow past the valve and drip all over my floor. Now I just carry around a small squirt bottle of 30 wt, and squirt a few drops on the chain every oil change. The chain looks just fine.

I could have saved $100+ and hours of trouble. Live and learn.

 

I'm glad you did a follow up steve after first reading that old post I was interested in one. But now with what you said on the follow up I guess I wont bother. Thanks for the follow up:smile:

 

every oil change?? You mean you go about 3,000 miles (or so) before dropping a few drops of oil on your chain? Or, did you mean fuel-up? I'm pretty careful when it comes to chain management. I am originally used to the maintenence-free Buell XB belt system, so this bike is my first chain. That said, my habit is to lube the chain w/ Motul every 500-600 miles. I also adjust the tension every 1000 miles, if needed. You gotta realize if that chain goes, you have about a 50/50 chance of it taking out your engine case!

 

Doh!

Doh! I wrote oil change. That was dumb, I meant gas fillup. In practice it is every other fill up or once a week, which are about the same thing for me. Chain #2 now has about 10,000 miles on it. Chain #1 lasted around 30,000 and was changed out due to stretch, it looked fine and had no stiff spots.