As you can read on this blog we have covered quite a bit of distance already as I'm writing this. My Bonneville T100 has now covered 93,000 km, Jeanette's T100 52,000 km and Mike's XT660R is currently at 55,000 km. Engine wise they have all been problem free and non of them use any oil. Of course the key to longevity is lubrication, after all it's the oil between the moving parts that prevents them from running hot and seizing. Engine oil has a lot to do in a motorcycle engine as the forces inside our relatively small engines are much bigger than in the average car engine. Our Triumphs are aircooled which means greater temperature variations and thus more work for the all important oil. Oil is thus important, but so is the filter to make sure the oil gets filtered from any debris floating around without hampering the all important continues flow of oil. We chose Hiflo Filtro as they make the world's only TÜV approved oil filter.
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| Jim from Bike Alert is a goldmine of information on chains, sprockets and filters and gave us fascinating insight into how their oil filters are made and tested. |
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| Top quality gear from Bike Alert |
Hiflo Filtro claims to have superior flow and stricter quality standards over many OEM products. According to Jim from HiFlo Filtro they were quite surprised by how poorly some OEM oil filters are made. 'Some just use foam as a filtering material!' he said in disgust. We have used HiFlo Filtro on our bikes for a long time now, and like I wrote before they are all still running like new, despite mine getting close to the magical 100,000 km now. The filters obviously work, which is why the Yamaha now has a HiFlo Filtro air filter as well.It's great to have people like Lili and Jim from Bike Alert behind us so enthusiastically. They really want Mike to succeed in his world record attempt and help us with their top of the range chains, sprockets and filters. That's one less thing to worry about, they really are behind him all the way. HiFlo Filtro can be found at http://www.hiflofiltro.com JT Chains and sprockets at http://www.jtsprockets.com
Evaluation, an extract from our post 'All our gear after two years on the road'
HiFlo Filtro
What is there to say about oil filters? We sort of fit them and assume they are ok, don't we? So how can we tell if they are, without a lab or flow and filtration testing facilities? Simply put, we can't. That's why HiFlo decided to have their filter TüV tested, by the most stringiest test regime in the world. HiFlo is the only one who has done so and passed the test, how's that for confidence? We did a pretty simple and real life test ourselves too. Start up the Bonnie from cold just after an oil change and wait for the oil pressure light to switch off... it tells us something about the flow of the oil. I had done that in the past with both the original Triumph filter and the K&N one, wondering which one would have a higher flow rate, and wrote down the time. There wasn't much between them. The HiFlo filter is the 'fastest' of the 3 though, suggesting HiFlo's claim of a higher flow is justified. The Bonnie has been on HiFlo Filtro filters for a long time, simply because they are better priced than the original Triumph filters and a better flow rate is always good! The Bonnie has already clicked over 100,000 km, Jeanette's Bonnie is on it's way to 70,000 km and Mike's XT is at 73,000 km now, all on HiFlo filtro and all with engines in good condition. To achieve mileages like that means a proper working lubrication system, of which the filter is a vital part!
