grease to repack bearings

[SilverBadge]

What else do Weldtite make? It seems such a stoopid name for grease

[CREPELLO]

What else do Weldtite make? It seems such a stoopid name for grease

They started many years ago making puncture repair kits and they also make lots of other maintenance stuff.

[CREPELLO]

( The point about hot days is that the grease will not be
"significantly above ambient temperature"
at least not compared to greases that survive hundreds of 'c. )

Anyway ... after finding this page, I could find the HP 222 (but not the SHC-PM) in "modest" quantities:
http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/produc ... ku=7067744
£3-ish, haven't worked out the postage charge!

If anyone has more upto date info on a good hub grease, please let me know. Otherwise this link might be useful to folks.

Just go into any car parts shop and buy a medium weight grease. Bearing life will have more to do with the hub/bearing quality and any sealing against water ingress.

[jezer]

Second the big tub of lithium grease. Buy a tub, lasts for life!

Definately lasts a long time. I bought a tub 15 years ago, and still have about 70% of it left. (You used to have to strip and lube bottom brackets frequently in those days). I had a club mate in the 80's who used Campagnola branded grease. I asked him why and he replied "mystique"

[pliptrot]

One comment Richard Ballantine made in his seminal book was "the very, very expensive Campagnolo grease is a load of old cod", which has always stuck with me. (I may be a bit off, but that's close). One thing Campag did right was to have lube ports in the middle of their hubs - I haven't stripped mine down for years. The expediency of this method of hub lubrication always forces me to buy tubes of (expensive) bicycle grease. Has anybody found tubes of grease at more reasonable prices which will fit simple grease guns as we use on bicycles?

[rjb]

pliptrot wrote

The expediency of this method of hub lubrication always forces me to buy tubes of (expensive) bicycle grease. Has anybody found tubes of grease at more reasonable prices which will fit simple grease guns as we use on bicycles?

I use a syringe cast off from an printer ink refil kit to inject grease into my bearings. I have drilled a small central hole in many of my hubs (replicating the old camag hubs) to make this easy.

[squeaker]

What does the grease actually do in a ball race? If the balls are rolling, with no sliding contact, then the grease presumably isn't lubricating in the conventional sense.

IIRC, the thick part is just a pliable (to get out of the way of the moving bits and stay there) medium to retain oil which will come out of the medium if / when the bearing gets warm (due to friction, caused by insufficient oil around the moving bits). Hence you never pack a greased bearing 100% full.
HTH

[fixer]

The expediency of this method of hub lubrication always forces me to buy tubes of (expensive) bicycle grease. Has anybody found tubes of grease at more reasonable prices which will fit simple grease guns as we use on bicycles?

Get a proper grease gun that you can refill with any grease you like, then you don't have to buy overpriced, repackaged (probably) grease from bike shops, eg the Dualco.

For pedals and hubs where it's very easy to pump in fresh grease, it's probably not that critical what grease you use.

[531colin]

I have one of these grease guns

Its a super little thing, fits the palm of your hand, nice to use on fiddly bike stuff.
But suddenly I'm having trouble finding tubs of grease with that disc-with-a-hole-in-it that you push down to fill the gun, the yoofs who staff my local car bits shop deny they ever existed. (and think anybody over about 23 is senile)
So now I dont know what to do. "Teacher's pet" in me says buy some of CJ's blue grease and one of those big clumsy guns that take a tube of grease. Then I would have to work out how to fit a needle nozzle. But if I can find a tub of grease which will fill it, I will probably go on using my miniature gun......

[Mattie]

Exus E-G01 bicycle grease for hubs, headsets and bottom brackets. (from SJS Cycles)

Its blue in colour and seems thicker than the white lithium grease that I used in the past. According to the blurb it is fortified with PTFE, link here all about Polytetrafluoroethylene: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene

The headset has been packed with the stuff to keep out torrential rain, but its next challenge will be to see if it stays put it hotter weather.

[CREPELLO]

One comment Richard Ballantine made in his seminal book was "the very, very expensive Campagnolo grease is a load of old cod", which has always stuck with me. (I may be a bit off, but that's close). One thing Campag did right was to have lube ports in the middle of their hubs - I haven't stripped mine down for years. The expediency of this method of hub lubrication always forces me to buy tubes of (expensive) bicycle grease. Has anybody found tubes of grease at more reasonable prices which will fit simple grease guns as we use on bicycles?

I have the same tube/gun arrangement. I think when I run out of grease I will snip off the end of the tube, fill the empty tube then find a way off sealing the end. I'm thinking of something like a food bag clasp thingamajig.

[CREPELLO]

pliptrot wrote

The expediency of this method of hub lubrication always forces me to buy tubes of (expensive) bicycle grease. Has anybody found tubes of grease at more reasonable prices which will fit simple grease guns as we use on bicycles?

I use a syringe cast off from an printer ink refil kit to inject grease into my bearings. I have drilled a small central hole in many of my hubs (replicating the old camag hubs) to make this easy.

What do you use to cover the hole? I would like to find some small rubber gromits, then I'll give drilling the hubs a go. I can't quite bring myself to wrap gaffer tape around the hubs. Can they be drilled after the wheel build?

[fixer]

I have one of these grease guns

Its a super little thing, fits the palm of your hand, nice to use on fiddly bike stuff.
But suddenly I'm having trouble finding tubs of grease with that disc-with-a-hole-in-it that you push down to fill the gun, the yoofs who staff my local car bits shop deny they ever existed. (and think anybody over about 23 is senile)
So now I dont know what to do. "Teacher's pet" in me says buy some of CJ's blue grease and one of those big clumsy guns that take a tube of grease. Then I would have to work out how to fit a needle nozzle. But if I can find a tub of grease which will fill it, I will probably go on using my miniature gun......

I've got the same grease gun, but with a longer nozzle. Mine is branded as DT, but AFAI it's made by Dualco. On mine the top screws off and I use whatever is handy (like an old spoon) to scoop fresh grease from a tub into the grease gun.

What do you use to cover the hole? I would like to find some small rubber gromits, then I'll give drilling the hubs a go. I can't quite bring myself to wrap gaffer tape around the hubs. Can they be drilled after the wheel build?

Sellotape is good, or just leave it uncovered. Yes the hub can be drilled after it's been built, you need to remove the axle and bearings before drilling. For the pedals, drill the dustcap, if there isn't already a hole there.

[531colin]

I think CJ is on record on here using tiny self tappers and O rings to seal his drilled hubs. I just use plastic insulating tape, colour to choice. I drill my hubs after the wheels are built, and Im afraid I dont bother to strip them first. I make sure Im drilling "upwards" when the drill penetrates the hub shell, most of the swarf is pulled out by the drills "twist" anyway. Aluminium is pretty soft stuff, and bicycle hubs have plenty of space for bits of muck that the balls push out of the way. But a word of caution....somewhere on here is a report of somebody pushing so much grease into a rear hub that he gummed up the freewheel pawls. A notable achievement, the grease must have gone through the driveside bearings, and done a U-turn at the bearing seal to even get into the freewheel body!

fixer
My gun is Dualco, re-branded I D. I actually have both nozzles.
Dont you get loads of air locks filling it with a spoon?

[Mick F]

The thing is, I may like to have a grease port on my hubs - but why?

I fitted a new cassette the other day, and whilst I had the rear wheel off, I thought I'd strip, clean and re-grease the rear hub as well. The strip, thorough clean and re-build must have taken about no more than 30 minutes.

My modern Campag Chorus hub has its drive-side bearing heavily loaded. It's a poor design, but now I know about it, I make sure I keep an eye on it. I rode it for 3000 miles when it was new and wrote off the drive-side bearing.

It was stripped and cleaned about 1000 miles ago, and it looked fine then as it does now. If I had a grease-port, all I would do is to push more and more grease in there and never look at the bearing. These hubs are a poor design for a bearing, but the rest of it is just stunning. No cone spanners, stripped in seconds, adjusts properly even with the wheel fitted and the skewer tight.

I don't need a grease port.