[CR]Re: oil and grease

(Example: Production Builders:Peugeot:PY-10)

From: <StuartMX4@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 17:31:59 EDT
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Re: oil and grease

Boring old farts time! Come back with me to half way through the last century.
       Older books on cycling always refer to assembling bearings using grease but after that lubricating them with oil. Some cycle components were made in such a way that oil was carried to the bearing surfaces by an oilway or a spiral groove. However, pre-war books refer to thick oil and recommend warming it first to make it more liquid. The old Castrol D gearbox oil for cars was so thick that in freezing weather it would not come out of the can! I don't think they could mean that. I assume that the oils for bicycle hubs might have been something like SAE30 to SAE50. I wonder if Castrol R would have worked. It is thickish and unbelievably sticky. Its boundary layer is wonderfully tenacious.
       A recommendation for bottom brackets was to flush out frequently with paraffin and to pump through a thick grade of oil and vaseline. I doubt if the paraffin was a good idea but perhaps if you flush it right out with the clean oil/petroleum jelly mixture, it would be okay.
       Post-war advice is usually to assemble bearings with grease but thereafter to use oil. It was sometimes suggested in print that you should wipe the outside of head bearings clean and feed a lot of oil in to flush out old grease and dirt which implies a thin oil. As a schoolboy in the fifties, I always had time to take the bearings apart every few weeks to put in new grease. That still seems reasonable. The exception is the Sturmey Archer hub gear as the pawls will stick if you use anything other than a thin oil.
       If you are after the ultimate performance and minimum friction, there are some very clever modern products. I wonder if anyone has tested to find what percentage gain they would provide. Does anyone still use a drip feed chain oiler? Stuart Tallack on the Costa Geriatrica of Southern England