How much oil should i use on my chain?
Along with the question "What Oil should I use we are often asked "How much oil will I use?"
Generally speaking, in the summer warm dry months with little rain you will need less oil than in the winter where rain will wash off the oil in short order. For a TUTORO Auto expect summer use to be a fill approx every 800 - 1000 miles. I know some users have gone 1500 miles on a fill but a lot depends on the time spent covering those miles - ie you cover a lot more miles on a motorway in a day than you do on small back roads but the time in the saddle is the same.
During the Winter months when the temperatures remain below 25° C and rain is all too frequent, the amount of oil you should use will need to increase in order to offer any sort of protection to your chain and sprockets- so expect to almost halve the distance you can go between fill ups.
What this looks like in real terms is Summer months on an Auto
on my Bike for instance, the flow control valve would be open
about 1 turn but during the Winter I open up the flow control valve to 2-2.5 turns open
- this does two things, it uses more
oil as I need to protect the chain
against the rain and salt and
it compensates for
the lower flow
rate of the oil
when cold.