Loobman Chain oiler
Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:14 pm
I'm a big fan of simple yet effective solutions. When I toured Lockheed Martin's C-130 line last year they pointed out that some of the high tech propellers had been getting nicks during the assembly line process, they solved this problem by going to Wal-Mart, buying some of those tubes you float around in the pool with in the Summer and slitting one side then sliding them over the blades and leaving them there until the planes were ready to go. Cheap, innovative, effective!
I saw the loobman chain oiler and it made me think, here's another simple product that may do a great job, so I bought one to put on my 500.
I had just finished putting a new 40 tooth sprocket on the bike and during that process I cleaned the chain, front sprocket and everything around really good, so it was a good time to install this product. The instructions are a bit difficult to follow, but after reading them and studying the sketches of the parts and how they should be installed I felt like I had a pretty good idea as to what to do. If you like wire ties, this project is for you. The loobman doesn't have any screws to hold it in place but everything is held on by a series of wire ties. The head that delivers the lubricant to the rear sprocket does mount to a steel wire with a supplied plastic bolt and nut, but the wire is held onto the swing arm with wire ties and the tubing is held on with wire ties and the bottle that holds the oil, you guessed it, is held on with wire ties. They even use wire ties as the physical part that touches both sides of the sprocket to deliver the oil.
(1) get the head, and install the clip, bolt, washers, wire and nut as shown in illustration #4 in the directions. Go ahead and insert the wire ties into the head and position them according to the instructions so they will touch the solid part of the rear sprocket once installed. (2) insert the plastic tube into the head and tighten the bolt to hold everything together. (3) bend the wire onto the swingarm so that it contacts the swingarm at three points. This is very important in holding the loobman head in the proper position. I didn't exactly bend my wire the way the instructions showed, but I did mount it in such a way as to make it very secure to the swingarm.
The loobman is a gravity fed system, so once the tubing leaves the bottle, it must travel down the entire length until it reaches the head, which should be located about mid way on the rear sprocket, (think 9 o'clock position). (4) route the tubing up towards the bottle. You must decide where you want to mount the bottle on your bike. The closer it is to the delivery head the shorter the tubing is and the quicker the oil is going to reach your sprocket after you squeeze the bottle to send the oil on it's way. I decided to put the bottle on the "riser" part of my sissybar/luggage rack. It's easy for me to reach while sitting on the bike and relatively out of the way from something accidentally hitting it. You can choose to mount it almost anywhere though as long as it is higher than the head and you can maintain a constant downward travel with the tubing.
After getting everything installed, I found that I had not done a good job of keeping the tubing going downhill, and the oil simply got to those points and stopped, never reaching the head, so I had to adjust things a little the next day, but it seems to be working now.
I wish I had taken a picture of the head all assembled before I installed it, sorry. Also, my apologies for not taking better "installation" pictures in general, but I hope this at least gives you an idea of what you could expect it to look like and how it generally installs if you decide to buy one for your bike. The loobman is pretty inexpensive, I paid $29 delivered to my home. The only parts that are really "special" are the head that delivers the oil to the rear sprocket and the holder for the bottle, everything else is pretty much just tubing and wire ties and a plastic bottle. It seems to be working as specified. I'll try to give you an update after I've had it on for a while and let you know what I think about it's ease of use, effectiveness and durability.
I saw the loobman chain oiler and it made me think, here's another simple product that may do a great job, so I bought one to put on my 500.
I had just finished putting a new 40 tooth sprocket on the bike and during that process I cleaned the chain, front sprocket and everything around really good, so it was a good time to install this product. The instructions are a bit difficult to follow, but after reading them and studying the sketches of the parts and how they should be installed I felt like I had a pretty good idea as to what to do. If you like wire ties, this project is for you. The loobman doesn't have any screws to hold it in place but everything is held on by a series of wire ties. The head that delivers the lubricant to the rear sprocket does mount to a steel wire with a supplied plastic bolt and nut, but the wire is held onto the swing arm with wire ties and the tubing is held on with wire ties and the bottle that holds the oil, you guessed it, is held on with wire ties. They even use wire ties as the physical part that touches both sides of the sprocket to deliver the oil.
(1) get the head, and install the clip, bolt, washers, wire and nut as shown in illustration #4 in the directions. Go ahead and insert the wire ties into the head and position them according to the instructions so they will touch the solid part of the rear sprocket once installed. (2) insert the plastic tube into the head and tighten the bolt to hold everything together. (3) bend the wire onto the swingarm so that it contacts the swingarm at three points. This is very important in holding the loobman head in the proper position. I didn't exactly bend my wire the way the instructions showed, but I did mount it in such a way as to make it very secure to the swingarm.
The loobman is a gravity fed system, so once the tubing leaves the bottle, it must travel down the entire length until it reaches the head, which should be located about mid way on the rear sprocket, (think 9 o'clock position). (4) route the tubing up towards the bottle. You must decide where you want to mount the bottle on your bike. The closer it is to the delivery head the shorter the tubing is and the quicker the oil is going to reach your sprocket after you squeeze the bottle to send the oil on it's way. I decided to put the bottle on the "riser" part of my sissybar/luggage rack. It's easy for me to reach while sitting on the bike and relatively out of the way from something accidentally hitting it. You can choose to mount it almost anywhere though as long as it is higher than the head and you can maintain a constant downward travel with the tubing.
After getting everything installed, I found that I had not done a good job of keeping the tubing going downhill, and the oil simply got to those points and stopped, never reaching the head, so I had to adjust things a little the next day, but it seems to be working now.
I wish I had taken a picture of the head all assembled before I installed it, sorry. Also, my apologies for not taking better "installation" pictures in general, but I hope this at least gives you an idea of what you could expect it to look like and how it generally installs if you decide to buy one for your bike. The loobman is pretty inexpensive, I paid $29 delivered to my home. The only parts that are really "special" are the head that delivers the oil to the rear sprocket and the holder for the bottle, everything else is pretty much just tubing and wire ties and a plastic bottle. It seems to be working as specified. I'll try to give you an update after I've had it on for a while and let you know what I think about it's ease of use, effectiveness and durability.