Cameleon Chain Oiler Review

 Automatic chain oilers are a bit controversial in the motorcycle world. Some riders don’t see the need or the value. Others prefer to oil (or wax) their own. We won’t get into WHAT to put on your chain, as this has been discussed to death on most bike forums.  

Oiling your chain can be a pain, especially if your bike does not have a center stand. It’s also an essential piece of maintenance that some forget. I’ve been out for a ride, miles from home and noticed that my chain looked a bit dry. I knew there was something else I had to do before I left the house!

 The Cameleon Chain Oiler is designed just for this purpose. It’s also useful if you’re on a long journey, you don’t need to pack an extra can of ‘lube, since it’s already fixed to the bike.

 The package arrived in a nice little box, with all the components separated by dividers. The kit includes the main oiler unit with drip tube, a long tube to that’s used as the oil reservoir, a generous supply of zip ties and mounting screws, instructions, stickers and a bottle of synthetic, 190SAE antifriction oil. Included with the instruction sheet was another sheet with pictures of the step-by-step process. Luckily for me, the bike in the picture was the same as mine – a VFR, although mine is a different year. A couple Youtube videos are also available online. (I found the picture of the programming graph too small, but I did find a much better one on their web site http://www.cameleonoiler.com).

 Installation went pretty smooth (see pics). The web site states it should take about 30 minutes, mine took about an hour. The first half-hour was trying to decide where to install all the parts. (Note to VFR owners: My installation location was not the best as I found out later when I tried to put the bike on the center stand. Yes, I installed it just where you would normally grab.)

 Programming it depends on the type of bike you have; touring, cruiser, sport bike motard, dual sport or dirt bike. I’m assuming a different amount of oil is dispersed depending on the type of bike you ride.  

Once complete I did have a question: “How often does the oil come out? I emailed the folks at Cameleon and got this reply:

 “The Cameleon works with a valve that opens every 3.75min on cycle for the amount of time programmed. Lets say 4 seconds would have a drop or two per 6km which is not a lot but is all the chain needs to stay saturated. This oiler is a clean system not using a pump to spit oil on the chain, it is a gravity fed chain oiler, using drops is more adequate! One drop is followed by a string of oil that is about a meter long as you can see in the video I included. The time programmed can depend on the motorcycle and the weather like if its raining more oil is necessary. The chart is more or less just to show the different types of motorcycles and the corresponding programming.”

Conclusion
I been riding the bike for a few weeks and the chain is lubed, but not overly lubed. It seems to be working fine. It's one of those accessories you can install and just forget about it. One thing I did notice was there was NO oil flung on to my rim or other parts of the bike. Bonus!

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