oil lines

[givemeagirl]

does anyone know why most of the oil lines on the gt380 .550, and 750 are red ?were they red when new or has some dye in the oil made them red, i have 4 t350s and all the oil lines are clear ? mmmm

[GT750Battleship]

Hi,as you suggest,the lines,oil tank get stained by the dyes used in the oil..my oil tank is blue,after 12 years of Castrol TTS use,I have a complete oil line spider that's never been on a bike...plastic is clear,maybe a little yellow in colour through age

[yeadon_m]

I think some really ARE red though. My GT380 lines are red, even though for most of its miles and years it used natural coloured oil. My GT550 lines are clearish even though its had red oil through them!

I've no idea why...maybe as trivial as 'thats the lines we can get which meet spec'?

Mike

[givemeagirl]

thanks for the answers,strange though i have never seen any red pipes on 250 and 350 twins and i have sevral new old stock pipes which are all clear,also i have used red oil few a few years now but mine are still clear ?mmm

[Alan H]

Hi,as you suggest,the lines,oil tank get stained by the dyes used in the oil..my oil tank is blue,after 12 years of Castrol TTS use,I have a complete oil line spider that's never been on a bike...plastic is clear,maybe a little yellow in colour through age

Chinese pipes then? I'm knocking on a bit but I don't look bloody pallid.
C'mon mate gerra grip!!!

[oldjapanesebikes]

Happy to be corrected, but I am pretty certain some came with red lines. I have a couple of sets off of J's and K's that have red lines, red plastic valve ends but white rings under the oil pump. In the photo below, the blue lines just have injector oil in them , and the dark red lines likewise have blue oil in them.

[Suzsmokeyallan]

I'm with you on your observation Ian. I have one set of red lines from a 73 model and all the rest in my stock pile are translucent white. The lines must have been red originally as the spider boss is never red its always white. If oil dye tinted the lines it should also tint the spider boss red around the lines too.

[derekstudt]

My GT550J has red oil lines as well. Appears to be red tubing, not dyed from oil.

I'd agree with Allan's observation as well. If it was dye from oil the spider boss would have turned as well.

[tz375]

Hang about... How do we think they managed to weld or join red tubes to a white nylon center? They didn't. It's the inside surface that's changed to red and it can also be seen in the boss. The question is whether that was some sort of treatment during manufacture or if it was oil stained.

My guess is that it's early pipes that are red and not the later ones, it suggests that it was a manufacturing process that was dropped later.