Old timmers told me of melting vasaline in a double boiler and pouring that
into the hs and bb. Never tried this myself.
J.T. Pergolizzi
back in N.Y.C. from The Worlds in Hamilton, Canada!
Yes, I got "stuff".
Still downloading the video to see if it's me their yap'n about.
> Jay Sexton wrote:
> >
> > I posted a request for info on my Cinelli b.b. with oil port holes a few
> > days ago. Is it possible no one knows? My question was: How are the
> > holes used? Is there a special fitting for each of the holes for either
> > grease or oil? How does it actually function? Does the whole b.b. fill
> > up with either oil or grease? If so, it sure sounds messy.
>
> The threaded holes in the Cinelli BBs shells from around the sixties and
> before (hole in top left side and bottom of shell) are for oiling the
> bearings. A slotted pan head machine screw was used to close the holes
> (there should not be an oil cup with a flip top or a Zerk® grease
> fitting either).
>
> Oil was squirted through the top hole onto the BB spindle/axle and the
> bike tipped to one side or the other so that the oil would dribble out
> to the bearings and "refresh" the hardened grease after a winter of
> inactivity. The bottom hole in the BB is a drain for the excess oil to
> exit the BB shell.
>
> Yes, it is very messy and lazy way to do periodic bike maintenance.
>
> Some Italian bikes had an addition oil hole in the back side of the head
> tube to refresh the grease in the upper and lower headset bearings. Same
> thing with the oil holes in the center of the Campagnolo Record hubs.
> And the first version of the Gran Sport pedals had an oil hole and oil
> hole clip (same as the hubs) in the center of the pedal bodies for the
> same purpose.
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, CA