I first heard of the HawkeOiler on another motorcycle list on January 2nd, 2000 and was immediately intrigued. I had been looking into oilers seriously for several months, but the complaints I had heard from some owners of perpetually fighting with drip rates, or oilers that kept dripping all night long had kept me from adding one to my bike. So when I read of the HawkeOiler with its electric pump and pushbutton switch, I thought this was meant to be.

So money in hand, I purchased the system from HawkeOiler company owner John Laurenson. John is a long distance rider and after ending up with a trashed chain on a long run, he decided that he could come up with something that would extend the life of his chains. Thus the HawkeOiler was conceived....

I recieved the kit the day before my ST was to go in for it's final factory warranty service - a new toy in hand but nothing to put it on. So it was that I was not able to get the oiler installed until the end of January. The kit is pretty straightforward and easy to install. Included in the kit are two different size oil bottles, the smaller being easier to conceal - the larger lasting longer between fillups. A tube is connected to the supply bottle which then feeds to the pump. Another piece of tubing runs from the pump to a location on the chain guard (or in that area) so that oil will be dripped on the chain. A pushbutton switch is mounted conveniently in your dash and then the whole thing is connected to the bike's electrical system.

After installing my unit and doing some testing, I found a problem - the oil continued to drip from the supply tube even with the pump not activated.. The drip was not quck, but was rapid enough that there was a noticable collection on the floor in the morning. John had me try several changes before we agreed that the pump was not stopping the oil from flowing when not in use. John contacted the supplier of the pump and they agreed to exhange all the pumps. I received the replacement a couple of weeks later, which I promptly installed, only to have the same result. The supplier said that they had shipped the wrongs ones, so back it went again (such is my luck). Through it all, John had been great so I decided to just see how things turned out. After several more emails it became apperant to John that something else was needed, so he found a backpressure valve that could be installed between the exit of the pump and the end of the drip tube. Once I added this to the system, the drips went away - Wahoo !!! (see, I told you it was a different ending than normal).

The system is easy to use and performs exactly as expected. I prefer knowing that I can add more oil when riding through rain and then back down to the regular amounts when dry. Also, as I can control when the oil is added, I have the ability to add oil at low speeds when less is flung off. I will keep this page upated as I get more miles on with it, but at this point I would have to say that John has a great product on his hands.

I have included some pictures of my "non-standard" installation below.

-Eric

Kit Contents - Pump, 2 Oil Bottles, Tubing and Switch.	Bottle mounted under the rear fairing. Tube on top added to allow filling without removal of the fairing (fill by removing seat). If mounted under the fender, the bottle is simply removed to be refilled.	Tube crosses from right to left side in tail section.
Pump installed on left side of frame.	Tubing routed under water bottle - will be covered by rear fairing.	Backpressure valve installed
Final length of tube barely visible next to brake line.	Oil tube goes through chain guard to drip oil on chain.	Wire to switch run up left side of bike under tank.
Switch mounted in dash.		View of oil bottle with fairing installed. Once fairing installed, the system is nearly invisible.