No, this is not asshole design. If the oil port was sticking further out, it’s gets knocked off if you lay the bike down. And then you have no oil at all, and a blown up motor.
It’s by good design the oil port is recessed. Yes it’s annoying to use a funnel, but it’s the preferable option.
?? Oil port would only need to be extended by like 0.5" to clear that exhaust pipe, the casing to the left extends probably 1-2" from that. If you lay the bike down it that casing would stop the oil port from being touched. Shouldn't be an issue.
Honestly they sound like asshole engineers trying to justify their poor quality of work. Cardboard, tinfoil, and brake cleaner can’t excuse a poor design.
Make the exhaust curve back a bit? More expensive to make the part than having a straight pipe with just one bend.
Dent the exhaust? Affect flow, create hot spot right under the oil drain plug.
Expect people to be intelligent enough to put some cardboard or foil under the plug so they don't spill oil on the exhaust? Idiots are complaining and posting their failure on the internet and blaming you.
I know that's a solution, but as a solution to bad design it's a little bit "Just wear a rubber glove to stop your oven electrocuting you". Yeah sure, but maybe design it better?
A genuine question if you would like please, I know you meant warm oil for easy maneuvering (oil moves faster when warm/hot), but what about hot oil? Is it safe to change motorcycle oil after an hour or more ride when the oil might be toi hot?
A co-worker of mine tried adding water to his car reservoir after he just stopped from a long ride, the water was near boiling point and it blowed up on him the moment he opened tha water reservoir (not sure that is the correct name). Can such a thing happens with oil exchange?
Oil doesn't expand and steam like water, so no that won't happen, but hot oil leads to very nasty burns and can melt gloves onto your hands. Most bikes run the oil around 200 degrees. So no it isn't safe to change hot oil. Don't do that.
Plus people know you mean business when you’ve got some foil.
Guy pulls over his car and brings out the the lug wrench, okay fine. He’s gonna change that tire. Let’s hope he doesn’t forget to chock the wheels, but he’s got the idea.
But you see a dude pullin reynolds wrap out of his bags next to a motorcycle on the off-ramp, that’s a serious dude. That’s the kind
of dude you give that dude a burger when he walks by. That’s all I’m sayin.
Tipping it over could cause a drop, which could be costly to replace. And if you're just holding it to one side. You'd need a second person to either hold it, or take the plug out.
Doesn't help for this (or the next) oil change... But look into a fujimoto drain plug. Its a mini ball valve that is spring loaded (so you have to press the leaver up before you can turn it... Also has a 2nd safety in the form of a plastic clip that prevents it from being pressed up). Makes oil changes so easy. For your bike, it might still be too recessed, but the valve has a hose barb on it too so you can direct the oil into the drain pan
Seen a lot of complaints about these thing leaking over time in the car communities. No experience myself, but may be something to keep in mind, especially of you end up laying the bike over.
I'm 100% buying another fumoto valve when my free oil change plan is up. I never even had to jack up my old car to change its oil.
My one complaint was that without seeing the valve, it's super hard to remember which way you push and which way to turn. Not fun to figure out when your oil is at highway temps and you're fumbling around between hot parts with a glove that's getting hotter and hotter.
Problems such as these are usually a management failure. The design of individual components are often owned by a particular person or small group. They take responsibility for the design and testing. If one person owns the sump and another person owns the exhaust pipe, their work needs to be coordinated in such a way that the finished product meets all its goals. It wouldn't be a surprise to find out that the exhaust engineer had to re-route the pipe in order to resolve some other clash and they ran out of time to fix the new problem before mass production had to start. Making complex machinery is difficult.
If they made the spout longer, people would complain that they hit it with their shoes while riding. Or complain that it limits their ability to put on aftermarket pipes. Or some other issue that might be caused by it being longer. It is all about trade-offs.
Of all the options, I think dealing with a little oil on the pipes every 3000 miles or so is reasonable, especially since a piece of tin foil would solve the problem.
I'm not a motorbike person, but couldn't they sell a 50 cent plastic thingy you could screw on instead of the cap that would make it go into some container even?
Plastic would be a bad idea, but there's a company called Fumoto that makes a ball valve replacement for the drain pan plug that has a hose barb on the end.
I had an '85 Dodge Omni GLH (turbo) where that had the oil drain plug directly over a cross member. I don't know if that was standard in the Omni or added for the GLH but when you drained the oil it just went everywhere. My oil drain pan wasn't big enough to catch it all. I stopped doing my own oil changes on that car.
My Funduro does the same thing, but right at the header so if you get any oil at all on the pipe you get a nice cloud of smoke upon firing the bike up.
I still prefer dealing with that though over how my WR400 makes you take the header section off in order to change the oil filter. That gets more annoying - particularly as that's something one has to do pretty regularly on that bike.
Yeah, that makes sense. I just couldn't imagine shutting it down and immediately pulling the plug as the smartest thing to do, especially with this particular setup.
Keep replacing the ones you’re using with the latest iteration
I mean, a lawyer’s gonna disallow that I’m pretty sure but that’s how we’d be designing new bikes at DaVinci Crater if I were over there. I’ll stay on the low sec roads, I know it needs major design certification before anyone can take it on the nice roads
Should be, but prototyping and making one offs is expensive, maybe even 100x the cost of mass production per unit, so they will of course be looking to do the minimal amount possible