Amsoil Grease in my Bicycle

[msparks]

Well I finally got around to changing out the wheel bearings in my bicycle. I had the local shop do it for me, and I used Amsoil #2 synthetic grease.

It seems thicker than the bicyce specific stuff, which I think will be better. Sometimes the grease tends to 'leak' out when it gets hot.

We did a 35 mile ride today and it worked great. I should't have to change out those bearing for another 10,000 miles!!

 

[tdi-rick]

A #2 grease can be too thick and not let the ratchet and pawls work properly in some free wheel hubs, although I've used Neo Z12 in a few freewheels, wheel bearings and rebuildable bottom brackets

In my Chris King Hubs on the MTB, CK synthetic grease is used, and with the DT Hugi hub on the roadie, DT Swiss moly grease is used (actually Dow Corning Molykote TP42)
Good 'ol Slick Honey is used anywhere else a grease is called for. (like fork bushings)

Yep, you can hear me coming from a looooong way off when freewheeling either bike.

 

[Doug Hillary]

Hi,
I posted this in here on July 9 2003 in answering a similar request for information
and I hope it is of some value

STARTS:

"I was a Velodrome racer (sprinter/1km TT) for many years - Europe, NZ and Australia
I used a very light oil (3in1) or such in track wheels (Campagnolo hubs)
In my road wheels (training/racing) I used much the same lubricant - never grease.
There are a number of very good specialised synthetic lubricants available now

and;
"One way to correctly lube a chain is to lightly warm a synthetic engine oil and add some Moly (or graphite), then immerse the chain after thoroughly cleaning it. Leave for an hour or two. Allow it to drip dry afterwards, then wipe all external oil off it
Then spray with one of the new synthetic chain lubes to seal it, externally lubricate and to repel water, dirt etc
I agree that cone and ball bearings are good for bikes - and infinitely adjustable. I once had a sealed bearing seize up ( rear hub )in the final sprint for a national road race championship - four of us crashed!
In track racing if you remove one ball each side they then sound good too - a gentle rattle!"

ENDS

Note 0205: I used to add moly to the 3in1 oil keeping it very thin - in road hubs we used 10w-30 oil with moly. These covered about 9000miles per year without attention except if caught in a very rainy race - then we used to re-lube the bottom bracket as a matter of course. Sealed bottom brackets later removed the need

Re-oiling wheel bearings was an annual task and I NEVER saw any wear on the cups, cones or balls and never had to replace any in nearly 30years of cycling. I still have many of the wheels

Regards
Doug

 

[brian fix]

though I worked in a bicycle shop in past, for one thing there is alot of special greases on the market,most if not all are good,if using a other grease use no#1,of given brand,most importantly clean /lightly fill BEARING cavity,set the bearing load also to proper load to specs,or experence,replace as needed,,,,as for the freewheel, a old ,but proven lube is gear oil.(as 80-90) with a light tip on your finger,grease tends to be a wee thick,dont forget your pedals and bearing tension,,,the chain ,,clean off the cosmoline that it comes with,,,Schaeffers Pentro-90 works fine ,though frequently applyed does work fine....BL

 

[tdi-rick]

Hi Doug,
I remember reading that post first time round, great info from an experienced rider !

The grease used for the Chris King hubs is a low shear, semi fluid synthetic grease/heavy oil, at a guess, something like a # '00'.
This is required for the correct engagement of the 'RingDrive' mechanism, they don't use a ratchet and pawls.
In the manual, they say this grease can be substituted by a 20W non detergent mineral oil, or a 20W synthetic.
Now, I don't know if this means a 20W-X, or a XW-20

but doesn't matter, as I have the OEM grease.

With the DT Swiss hub, due to the rathet design (again pawless) they require a pretty light grease with a reasonable amount of moly (5%).
Dow Corning actually call it a paste.

Wouldn't mind betting your 10W-30 + moly would work OK in both hubs

TYPICAL PROPERTIES Molykote TP 42
Test
Standard* Unit Result
Color Light beige
Penetration, density, viscosity
Unworked penetration 265-300 mm/10 ISO 2137
Density at 20°C 1.19 g/ml ISO 2811
Temperature
Service temperature¹ -25 to +250 °C
Drop point 125 °C ISO 2176
Low temperature torque test at -20°C ASTMD-
1478-80
Initial breakaway
torque 224x10ª³ Nm
Torque after 20 minutes running time 59x10ª³ Nm
Kesternich method - flow pressure at
20
°C
740 mbar DIN 51 805
Load-carrying capacity, wear protection, service life
Four-ball tester (VKA)
Weld load 3000 N DIN 51 350 pt.4
Wear under 800N load 0.9 mm DIN 51 350 pt.5
Almen-Wieland machine
OK load 20000 N
Friction force 1710 N
Coefficient of friction
Press-Fit test µ = 0.09
Resistance
Water resistance, static 2-90 DIN 51 807 pt.1
Corrosion protection
SKF-Emcor method DIN 51 802
Degree of corrosion 0-1
COMPOSITION
Mineral oil •
Synthetic oil •
Lithium soap •
Solid lubricants •
Adhesion improver •
TYPICAL PROPERTIES (continued)
Test Standard* Unit Result
Oil separation - evaporation
Oil separation, standard test 1.5 % DIN 51 817
1. Thermal stability of solid lubricant.
* ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials.
ISO: International Standardisation Organisation.
DIN: Deutsche Industrie Norm.
HOW TO USE
How to apply
The sliding surfaces should be
cleaned. The paste should then be
applied with a suitable brush, rag or
grease gun. It should not be mixed
with greases or oils.

 

[msparks]

quote:

---

Originally posted by tdi-rick:
A #2 grease can be too thick and not let the ratchet and pawls work properly in some free wheel hubs, although I've used Neo Z12 in a few freewheels, wheel bearings and rebuildable bottom brackets

---

My freewheel works as normal. So I guess I'm okay. Anyhow, I would probably use our #1 next time. Though they don't put it in an 8oz squeeze tube like the #2.

I wonder how out SPY grease would do?

quote:

---

AMSOIL Semi-Fluid 00 Synthetic EP Grease is a lithium complex semifluid grease (NLGI 00) formulated with high-viscosity ISO-460 synthetic base oils. Coupled with a sophisticated additive package, AMSOIL Semi-Fluid 00 Synthetic EP Grease coats and reacts to metal surfaces, providing an unparalleled protection system that reduces wear and prevents damage. Advanced extreme-pressure additives provide superior protection and performance in shock-loading applications which can rupture the oil film of conventional greases and lead to damaging metal-to-metal contact

---

 

[Doug Hillary]

Hi Rick,
I remembered after my post here that we used the same 10w-30 plus moly in freewheels (clusters)and pedals
We used a variety of cluster brands and never had a failure but they were always silent on freewheel!

Because I trained a lot on the hills around Dunedin in NZ (when there if course) in the winter (-0 to -10 and snow etc too) we used to drop oil into the cluster (and pedals) monthly or so. We never attemted to clean these they were always replaced annually

The Campag grease was white and tacky and even the Italian mechanics (I spent a LOT of time travelling with the Italian team - their National Coach was mine too) used to quickly remove the white grease from any new equipment

Regards
Doug