Auto lube or premix
-
Depends how in tune with your bike you are.
The fact the bike smokes should be the giveaway if the oil pump fails.
It will also spike in temperature before it fails due to increased fiction. It will be down on performance and it will start to sound like there is sand in the engine. Of coursw by which time it will be too late and you would have to either premix there and then or push the bike home.
My brother noticed the oil gears snap on his RS on a rideout once. He made it all the way home with no oil and the engine kept on going for years as soon as he fixed the broken gears.
There should be sufficient oil in the engine to do the odd mile or too when it fails, bur don't expect to be doing any long distances.
-
They seem super reliable. I think more people have had troubles after removing them.
I flog mine pretty good, and the autolube keeps up no problem.
-
Speaking honestly from my experience I've never had problems with my oil pump on the DTs, they work well. Just make sure you're topped up here and there as I've found my low-level oil indicator lies sometimes. And as Calum said just beware of any difference in the sound of the engine, it will heat up a lot more and your engine may start suffering from power-loss when you put your foot (or hand in this case) down.
I've been riding Enduro a long time and to save weight they don't have oil pumps so you have to premix. The mixture will vary from bike to bike, normally it is about 2% for every 10 litres but to get it perfect it really is trial and error. Too much oil and the bike will smoke even after it has warmed up, if you see oil dripping from your muffler then you're putting in far too much. Too little and your bike will run a little too hot and it shouldn't sound too happy when you go over 25-30mph.
You can pick whichever way to go, but if you plan filling up at petrol stations then the problem is you don't really know how much oil you need to put in and so can't be very precise. Although at the same time it shouldn't hurt much, and it won't hurt as much as your oil pump failing that is for sure.
