grease

In article <[email hidden]>,

DJ said:

Is car grease too thick for bicycle bearings?

No, it'll be fine, although you'd do better to take the balls out and
clean everything. But getting the load on the bearings right is most
important -- see http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cone-adjustment.html for a good explanation.

--
Shane Stanley

DJ said:

Hi Fellas,

Need your help and advice.

The other day I heard a noise coming from my front wheel on the Fuji Touring
bike, I first thought it might've been a front brake block rubbing against
the rim but on closer inspection it was comming from the front hub. Bugger!!
I thought, as I'm about to do a 160km ride over the next 2 days with a group
staying o'night on the South Coast (nsw), So, bravely but not fully
convinced of my mechanical prowess, I slowly took out the Skewer, axle nuts
& axles to find that the bearings didn't have much grease on them at all,
almost to the point of being bone dry.

I didn't have any grease on hand and it was getting late so I shot up to a
mates place and got some ordinary car grease,better than nothing I
thought.So, with a small flat head screwdriver, I just put a smidgen of
grease over the bearings and along the axle.Some of the little ball bearings
tried to come out but due to the grease being a bit thick, i was able to
replace them and push them back gently all in a row (I hope).
So putting everything back together, making sure I didn't screw the nuts up
too tight (are they s'pose to be reasonable loose?) well they were pretty
loose when i took them off.

My main question is : Is car grease too thick for bicycle bearings? I hope I
did the right thing, as I'll be leaving reasonable early in the morning
(sat)> This is the first time I ever tried this but it did get rid of the
sqeak/grinding sound that was there before.
I went for a slow ride close to home to listen for any noise or feel
irregularities but so far so good.

I couldn't beleive there was so little grease in these bearings, is this
usual for new bikes? I've only done 600k's on it so far so I didn't think
it'd be dry otherwise, why would it make this grinding/squeak noise?

Thanks in advance

DJ

aaaarrgh! :O Mayhap your cones' bearing surfaces could have been damaged. When you've got time, take them all out again, and look carefully at the shiny surface where the balls run around. If there's any pitting or wear, get a warranty - i.e. the hub was assembled incorrectly without enough grease, and too tight, by the sounds of it.

Good ol' Optimax or Mobil blue is fine for most bikes, but if you want to, you can get some expensive teflon grease, $10-20 a tube, which is a little thinner and more adhesive for bike-sized bearings and bearing loads (thrust, friction, tangential, sometimes all at once!) but still keeps everything running schweet, mate.

M "my tub of Campag clay-based grease started to smell, so I put it in the worm farm, and they ate it!" H

"mfhor" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

DJ said:

Hi Fellas,

Need your help and advice.

The other day I heard a noise coming from my front wheel on the Fuji
Touring
bike, I first thought it might've been a front brake block rubbing
against
the rim but on closer inspection it was comming from the front hub.
Bugger!!
I thought, as I'm about to do a 160km ride over the next 2 days with a
group
staying o'night on the South Coast (nsw), So, bravely but not fully
convinced of my mechanical prowess, I slowly took out the Skewer, axle
nuts
& axles to find that the bearings didn't have much grease on them at
all,
almost to the point of being bone dry.

I didn't have any grease on hand and it was getting late so I shot up
to a
mates place and got some ordinary car grease,better than nothing I
thought.So, with a small flat head screwdriver, I just put a smidgen of
grease over the bearings and along the axle.Some of the little ball
bearings
tried to come out but due to the grease being a bit thick, i was able
to
replace them and push them back gently all in a row (I hope).
So putting everything back together, making sure I didn't screw the
nuts up
too tight (are they s'pose to be reasonable loose?) well they were
pretty
loose when i took them off.

My main question is : Is car grease too thick for bicycle bearings? I
hope I
did the right thing, as I'll be leaving reasonable early in the morning
(sat)> This is the first time I ever tried this but it did get rid of
the
sqeak/grinding sound that was there before.
I went for a slow ride close to home to listen for any noise or feel
irregularities but so far so good.

I couldn't beleive there was so little grease in these bearings, is
this
usual for new bikes? I've only done 600k's on it so far so I didn't
think
it'd be dry otherwise, why would it make this grinding/squeak noise?

Thanks in advance

DJ

aaaarrgh! :O Mayhap your cones' bearing surfaces could have been
damaged. When you've got time, take them all out again, and look
carefully at the shiny surface where the balls run around. If there's
any pitting or wear, get a warranty - i.e. the hub was assembled
incorrectly without enough grease, and too tight, by the sounds of it.

Good ol' Optimax or Mobil blue is fine for most bikes, but if you want
to, you can get some expensive teflon grease, $10-20 a tube, which is a
little thinner and more adhesive for bike-sized bearings and bearing
loads (thrust, friction, tangential, sometimes all at once!) but still
keeps everything running schweet, mate.

M "my tub of Campag clay-based grease started to smell, so I put it in
the worm farm, and they ate it!" H

--
mfhor

Thanks mfhor, I think maybe I got it before there was any substantial
pitting but I will take it back to the bikeshop after this weekend as I want
the bike checked over before doing this Yr's RTA bike ride so I'll get him
the check front and rear.If the front is skimp on grease, what the hell is
the back gunna be like!!
I don't think the cones were too tight actually, I think it was just a case
of not enough grease applied, as the cones were reasonable free moving
without being sloppy, I just hope I got it time for no damage to be done.

Thanks again mfhor and also Shane from the previous post, on the way
now...here goes!!

With all fingers crossed , I'll be heading south for 2 days on a mini tour

Cheers

DJ