bumper wrote:byegad wrote:oil everywhere and rear brake useless.
That's what the soles of your shoes were for
I ran an SA hub gear for over 30000 miles on gear oil; once every couple of weeks I added a little and most of it came right out again in the messy form described. I reckon that at any one time there was maybe a teaspoonful in there, tops.
These days I use a specially formulated thixotropic semi-fluid grease (with EP additives, solid lubricants, high base oil viscosity and corrosion inhibitors) in IGH's and I can go up to a year between relubing with no ill effects, despite the fact that the bikes in question stand out in the rain etc. This lube makes the hub run quieter than it did in oil, and isn't noticably more draggy or anything.
In any event the gradual leakage of lube (from older designs of hubs without such good sealing) is not an altogether bad thing since the hub won't go rusty, and wear debris is encouraged out of the hub without having to strip it down. With the oil, leakage was about 10cc per month or something, where with the new lube it is about the same amount in a year, so no braking problems.
BTW if anyone wants some SBX grease or the thixotropic semi-fluid grease I can supply small quantities at cost.
cheers