Some people love maintaining and cleaning their bikes, installing various after-market parts and keeping them in a pristine condition all times. I, on the other hand, just like riding them, with as little maintenance as possible. Over the years, besides flat tires, chains have given me the most problems. Back when I just started riding, lubricating chain was one of the last things on my mind. Fast forward a few hundred thousand miles and now I am almost anal about keeping my chain well oiled. My bike may be filthy and plastic pieces may be broken or completely missing, but my chain will be lubed.

At the end of a long day of riding, fiddling with the chain, especially on a bike without a center stand is the last thing I want to do. Even when I start a day with perfectly lubed chain, after a few hours, it will be dry and in need of lubrication. A system delivering oil onto a chain constantly, while riding, would be a great solution.

Survey of what's commercially available on the market gives quite a few options. For a few hundred dollars, one can have a space-age solution. However, being an engineer, I thought why spend a few hundred dollars when I can build it myself. Well, a few thousand dollars in prototypes later, I finally have an automatic oiler that does what I needed. It was an expensive exercise in wasting time and money.

Version 1 - The Lazy Solution

I started with gravity-fed oiler, much like Scottoiler - just a plastic bottle with a hose dripping oil onto a chain. While it served me OK for several thousand miles, it lacked robustness in terms of the amount of oil dispensed - often too little or too much. More importantly, I would forget to shut the valve off when parked and there was a puddle of oil when I got back to the parked bike.

Primitive early version of the oiler kept chain lubed but left too many oil puddles behind during my Central Asia ride

Version 2 - Electronic Solution

Next was an electronics-controlled valve that would open every so often and close. It was active only while the ignition was on. So, forgetting to turn off the oiler when parked was less of an issue. I did not like this solution because it did not "know" whether bike was in motion or not. So it was quite possible for oil to be dispensed while the engine is running even though bike is stopped at a light or in a garage.

First oiler with microcontroller - worked well for a few thousand miles.

Version 3 - Motion Sensor Solution with Bluetooth

Finally, I got tired of partial solutions and went for a full-blown motion-sensor solution. Micro-controller analyzes data from the motion sensor and makes decisions when and how much oil to dispense. When no motion is detected for a certain period of time, the oiler goes to sleep to save power. Low power consumption is important not only to save the environment, but not to drain the battery when bike is parked for an extended period of time as well.

Additionally, for an easier user interface, a Bluetooth module was added, so that one can adjust oiler parameters (frequency and amount of oil dispensed) through a smart phone.

Oiler with motion sensor, Bluetooth and a more powerful microcontroller. Most of the motion detection algorithms were developed and fine tuned by analyzing data collected with this module and a laptop mounted on a little scooter.

My office during Covid summer of 2020 while stuck in Thailand.

Version 4 - More compact PCB with integrated Bluetooth module

Next version had the latest and greatest of Bluetooth technology, smaller drivers, better voltage regulator and more ESD protection.

The solution with motion sensor worked well on motorcycles with good voltage regulators. On others, because of insufficient protection from overvoltage protection, it failed. So, the final version included better protection and a new voltage regulator. I also used smaller transistors to make the board more compact.

Bluetooth module was upgraded to Bluetooth Low Energy so as to reduce power consumption. Also, this module is significantly smaller than the one used earlier, so that the whole board is much smaller.

Total power consumption was reduced in both active and sleep modes. In sleep mode, the power consumption is below 2mW. This means that the system can run off a typical motorcycle battery for many months without draining it.

Version 5 - One Button One LED Solution

While the Bluetooth interface enabled me to view the motion estimation in real time and to track various statistics (like how many drops were dispensed on the chain, how long I rode since last stop, etc), it was an overkill. Every time I wanted to just turn off oiler before going onto a dusty road or turn it on when back on pavement, I'd have to pull out my phone, connect bluetooth, fire up the app, press a bunch of buttons.... Too much work!

There is something to be said about simple solutions that just do the job without any bells and whistles. So, I decided to make another version of the oiler with one button and one LED as the interface. User interface is more complicated but most of the time, user just wants to turn the oiler ON/OFF or adjust amount of oil dispensed.

PCB with just one button and one LED and PCB with a micro peristaltic pump.

This solution was tested on a 20,000km ride around Southern Africa in 2022. It performed exactly the way it was expected to. It kept the chain lubed on paved and badly corrugated roads of Africa for three months. I could turn the oiler on and off even while riding.

Eventually pump died after an overzealous car wash attendant used high pressure nozzle all over the oiler housing and got pump wet, which damaged it. But it was yet another useful test - housing needs better waterproofing.

As it turned out, the pump just needed cleaning (dusty entered pump gearing and it seized). After cleaning the pump, I re-assembled the oiler and continued using it in South America in 2023.

Oil Flow Control

Electronics is only a part of the solution. Physical control of when and how much lubricant is dispensed on the chain is just as important. Some of the currently available chain oilers on the market make use of gravity and control oil flow with a valve. One drawback is that type of lubricant used and ambient temperature will affect viscosity and flow speed, hence the amount of oil dispensed.

Early versions of this oiler were gravity-fed too. Eventually, despite the cost and size drawbacks, peristaltic pump was chosen. This way, hoses can be routed any way one desires without worrying about oil not being able to flow "up". More importantly, the amount of lubricant dispensed can be controlled much more precisely. Additionally, one can use any lubricant as the pump internals never get in contact with the lubricant (unlike some other oiler brands that require certain types of lubricants).

Various peristaltic pumps that were tested with oilers.