No joke. I've used several different greases, but it sounds like I'm having really good luck in choosing them. I've had just one bb and one pair of hubs become stiff from grease that really hardened after several years. Unfortunately I couldn't recall what grease that was, but the hubs were 1985 Miche with their original grease that turned almost chalky at the six-year point. The affected bb may have been serviced with lithium grease. At 25 years, my Masi's hubs were just somewhat stiff, but still totally smooth. For all the rest of the many rebuilts that I have kept around for 5 or more years, there's been no hardening to speak of. Bullshot, Phil, Campy, NLGI#2 and my old tube of Trek grease simply never hardened within 10+ years for me. The OEM grease I find in some cheap 1970's hubs and bb's (that I know haven't been rebuilt) often as not seems almost as smooth as new, though there never seems to be nearly as much of it as would be desired to provide maximum shielding and lubrication. Some of those hubs even have huge gaps about the dust seal at the cone. I rebuilt a pair of 1978 MKS pedals last week that had the usual sparse quantity of dark brown, yet still fluid, factory grease. Now headsets, there's an area that seems to suffer the most serious grease contamination, compounded by my tolerance for lack of service to same. I'd sure like to identify those grease brands and/or types that harden up, apparently before even giving up their oil to the surrounding dust. That's some strange chemistry.
David Snyder
Auburn, CA USA
> ----- Original Message -----
> Subject: [CR]overhauling campy hubs, or not
>>
>> You're kidding, right? If you use them, Campy hubs get contaminated
>> from
>> dirt and water getting in from the outside and will wear out in a hurry
>> if not
>> overhauled. It is like not ever changing the oil in your car. It will
>> run
>> fine until the day the engine siezes. Why ruin a fine hub by not
>> maintaining it?
>> I have a lot of Campy hubs. Some only get taken out on occasional rides
>> and
>> some get used a lot. Those I overhaul at least once a year because they
>> really need it. The ones that only get used occasionally still need
>> overhaul once
>> in awhile because the grease turns to cardboard eventually. I have one
>> set
>> of "show" wheels built on the mid-70s Schwinn redrilled hubs that I built
>> up
>> about 1978 and have never ridden. I had to overhaul them last year
>> because I
>> could not even turn the axles any more. The grease had totally dried out
>> and
>> was hard to clean out of the hubs.
>>
>> David Snyder writes:
>>
>>> What symptom prompted the "need to overhaul" and the
>>> "necessity" to purge a Campy hub?
>>>
>>> I've ridden Record hubs for 15-20 years, with no symptom of any kind
>>> prompting me to do any service.
>>> If water gets in there, the hub's toast and needs parts, but in practice
>>> under normal varied conditions I've very seldom had this happen despise
>>> frequent delicate spray-offs with a garden hose.