Lube My Chain! Installing the Scottoiler for My Triumph Tiger 800

Did you know there is an alternative to messy spray lube and constant cleaning of your motorcycle chain? No – I didn’t either. I recently purchase a 2014 Triumph Tiger 800 and was presented with a bit of a new conundrum.

My new Tiger has a chain.

Chains are new to me given that I've only ridden street motorcycles with belt or shaft drive (Harley-Davidson). After a bit of research I stumbled upon the Scottoiler on the web. I was intrigued. ESR and Scottoiler kindly sent me one for evaluation.

Scottoiler – What is it?

The Scottoiler is a chain oiler system for your motorcycle that takes over the entire chain maintenance regime. That’s right, automatic chain lubrication means no more messing around with dirty chains which equals more riding time. The Scottoiler lubricates the chain while you ride, increases chain and sprocket life, and saves you time, money and hassle.

The oil is stored in a reservoir that can be mounted under the seat or on the frame and the oil lasts for at least 1500 miles of worry-free riding. The specially formulated non-stick oil is delivered to your rear sprocket and injected right into the chain where it’s needed, and when it’s needed.

Due to the non-stick characteristics of the oil, your chain will not pick up dirt and grit from the road and the lubricant will not turn into a black grinding paste as it does with traditional spray-lubricants.

A cleaner chain means longer chain and sprocket life, saving you money on replacement parts and repairs and keeping you safe on the road. Scottoiler offers kits to fit most bikes, including bike specific kits for BMW and KTM models, and Touring Kits for the long distance rider. They offer two types of kits including the vSystem and the eSystem.

vSystem

With the vSystem (or Vacuum System), oil is siphoned from the reservoir by gravity as well as from a hose connected to a vacuum outlet on your carburetor. The engine vacuum provides the power to open the valve in a reservoir and there is dial at the top allows you to adjust the flow rate by opening/closing the valve aperture.

eSystem

The eSystem (or Electronic System) is an electronically pumped motorcycle chain oiler requiring only a small power feed from the battery to operate. It can be installed to most bikes in under an hour by connecting the included wiring loom to the battery.

Simple Installation

I installed the vSystem in my Tiger and the install took maybe an hour in total and was pretty painless. There was a decent set of instructions included with the kit and Scottoiler has a lot of install videos and tech support on their website.

What’s in the Box?

The main components of the kit are a Reservoir Metering Valve (RMV), an injector (which feeds oil onto the chain and sprocket from the chain oiler), a bottle of Scottoiler motorcycle chain lube suitable for approximately 5,000 miles and the parts required for a variety of fitting options. There are also some bike specific parts, such as a specially tailored dispenser assembly and a reservoir cage, with the bike specific kits.

Read the Instructions First

I first started by taking everything out of the box, reading the instructions, and watching a couple of install videos. The instructions are easy to read and the videos are easy to follow. After my preview I took an inventory of the included parts, made sure I had everything and started the install.

First Step

The first step, after putting the bike on the paddock stand was to remove the seat as the reservoir goes under the seat on the Tiger install.

Find the Vacuum Connection on Your Bike

You need to locate a vacuum connection on your carb or throttle body. In the Tiger a spare vacuum outlet is located on the inlet side (right) between the airbox and the cylinder head. It is covered with a rubber bung so what you do is remove the rubber bung – I used a pair of needle nose plyers to do this – and then install the vacuum damper assembly included with the kit.

Oil Dispenser and Plate

The angled oil dispenser plate goes on the bobbin mount of your bike swing arm. In my case, I had to take the bike off the paddock stand and remove the paddock stand bobbin first as the dispenser plate needed to be installed in the same location.

At this point I ran into a small problem. The dispenser plate is notched to be angled correctly so that the oil can hit the chain at the right place. In my case this notch angled the plate in such a way that I would be shooting all my oil onto the road.

After taking a quick look and about 30 seconds on the grinder I enlarged the notch so that I could angle the plate to correctly hit the sprocket at the right place. The Optimum feed point is between 5 & 7 o’clock on the face of the rear sprocket. I’m not sure whether I got the wrong plate or whether this is a minuscule design defect, however it was a very easy fix and was of negligible concern. After grinding I put the plate together with the hose and the included hose clamp and installed it. Perfect fit. Now I just need to push dispenser nib in so that it is lightly touching the face of the sprocket, with the slash cut facing away from the sprocket to stop it getting blocked by any grit or friction. This will allow a slight film of oil to dispense directly onto the sprocket.

Installation of the Reservoir

The reservoir comes with a cage and can be located in a couple of different places on the Tiger. I opted to install it under the seat. In order to do this I needed to drill a couple of tiny holes in the under-seat tray so that I could loop the included cable ties around one of the frame rails. I used the cage as a guide to drill the holes in the tray then fastened it with the zip ties.

Route the Tubes

Once the reservoir was installed I needed to route the two tubes to complete the install. The vacuum tube was routed along the right side frame rails and into the under-seat tray area, then along the back of the tray and cut to size to fit it into the top of reservoir. In routing the tube you need to take note of any hot surfaces on the bike and avoid the tubes touching hot exhaust or engine components.

The oil delivery tubing also needed to be routed from the oil dispenser at the sprocket up to the reservoir. There are a number of ways to do this and the key thing to keep in mind is to avoid moving parts. I opted to route it along the swing arm then up the saddle bag bracket then into the under-seat tray area.

After thinking about it for a few days, I realized this may not be the optimum way to route the tube due to swing arm movement but I will test it out in the Spring and keep an eye on it and if I realize it's not a good idea, I'll find another routing (aka following the instructions). Options are to run the tube completely along the length of the swingarm, (the instructions show how you can run it through the swing arm), up through the rear shock area and then into the under-seat tray area which might be more ideal. Again, this tube was cut to length and attached to the rear of the reservoir.

Fill the Reservoir

When everything was all assembled and the tubing was all routed it was time to fill the reservoir. Scottoiler provides a filler assembly that fits into both the reservoir and the oil bottle. This assembly is also part of the breather system. Once the special adapter on the filling end of the hose is removed you can fill it up with oil through the hole. Once full you can set the reservoir to “prime” re-attach the breather assembly and oil bottle hose and then squeeze the bottle to force out all the air bubbles. The filling hose also acts as a breather for the system and stays connected. Then set the reservoir to the highest flow rate, reinstall it in the cage and re-attach the tubing. Note, the breather hole should always be pointing up.

Now you are ready to start the bike and get the oil flowing!

Run the Engine and Adjust the Oil Flow

Once the engine is running, the vacuum from the throttle bodies will be used to start pushing the oil out to the oil dispenser at the sprocket. Be patient, it takes a bit of time (maybe 5 minutes or so) but eventually it will start dripping oil onto the chain. Finally it is just a matter of adjusting the flow at the reservoir so that you get on drop of oil every 60 seconds or so. And now you're done.

I did this install when it was pretty cold out and the oil was somewhat viscous so I think I will test it again in the spring when it is warmer to ensure I am still getting the proper flow.

Final Impressions

The installation of the Scottoiler was pretty easy and I think anyone with even a small amount of wrenching abilities can take this on with no problems. As I mentioned there are a lot of technical install videos on the Scottoiler website as well as on youtube. Now all I have to do is wait until spring to really test it out.

A special thanks to Matt at Scottoiler for providing me with a system to test and to the folks at ESR who did all the arranging.

Want one? You can pick yours up at Twisted Throttle.

Editor's note: Want to contribute? If you ride, write and take good photos, get in touch with us with the product you'd like to review and we'll hook you up.