Pawls and springs got all jammed up with too much thick grease last week.
What grease or lube do you put onto pawls and springs that'll last a few weeks in these conditions but not jam up in the cold?
Lucas oil thick and tacky marine grease, red stuff, it's thick and tacky obviously but has never caused issues on hope pro rear hubs.
A tiny thin smear of castrol LM as its the only tub of grease I have. don't put too much on
DT Swiss ratchet grease (the red stuff). £10ish for a small tub that lasts centuries. I've found that it works just as well on traditional pawls.
Mavic ITS4 hubs said to use oil, I've used engine oil and chain oil and they both seemed to work fine
I normally use silkolene rg2 or Maxima stuff. If it's really really cold, I might switch to a suspension grease.
However, it's typically the amount used that causes issues rather than type of grease.
I've used some pink teflon finish line grease, the greeny-yellow Shimano stuff and the blue mobil (222?) Grease... All worked.
Ah, so it's very much the amount, not the grease
Semi fluid grease is the way to go, we use K400 EP in our hub assemblies.
My little tub of rather expensive Dumonde Tech Pro Freehub grease seems to last pretty well.
I got it in the hope it would dampen the noise of my Hunt wheel freehubs which it does but only for the first few rides. However other than the noise damping it's doing a decent job.
Freehub Grease - Dumonde Tech | Bicycle Chain Lube | Motorcycle Oil | Bike Lube | Chain Lubricant|
Dumonde Tech Freehub oil. Leaves the hubs noisy for warning when approaching walkers and lasts ages
Whatever is to hand.
Don't apply too much.
And don't wash it out.
It should last months.
In my hope hub i put a small dab of ren n tacky on the seat of the pawl and a generous helping of stendec suspension grease on the ratchet itself. Nice and quiet after that and no problems so far.
Mobil XHP 222 on my Pro4, in the pawl seat, between the spring and the pawl, and on the ratchet.
Tub of it off eBay.
I haven't experimented with greases, but it's much more viscous than Park Tool Polylube. Can be sucked into a 50ml syringe used as a grease gun, useful for doing the pawls.
Sturmey Archer grease
I've used shimano's basic grease and weldtite's red grease without issue in the past, but currently using nukeproof v2 freehub grease in my newer hubs with quicker engagement, I picked some up for £8.
I was looking at peaty's speed grease but wasn't sure how good the seals are at keeping it in.
I suspect most of us live in the uk where the main cause of bicycle failure is water and mud. As a result I use Morris k99 marine grease everywhere unless there are seals involved that call for silicone grease. No need to buy massively overpriced bike branded stuff, this works everywhere and stays put in our conditions. It’s on the pawls in my hope, shimano and various other freehubs and it works fine though don’t overpack the pawls.
Last time i looked it was about £5 for 500g.
Slick Honey for me in my DTs and XHP in my Hopes, just because the Hopes aren't as well sealed and the xhp deals better with ingress. Slick Honey is ime better- slippier, less sticky- if you can get away with it.
Ah, so it’s very much the amount, not the grease
I think it's both but given most people don't have a specialist grease for hubs you can get away with something thicker as long as you don't apply a lot. They don't need much.
What grease or lube do you put onto pawls and springs that’ll last a few weeks in these conditions but not jam up in the cold?
I'd question what you're doing with the bike for anything to last only a few weeks. I've never serviced hubs more regularly than a couple of years and a good few thousand miles... Unless it's submerged in water or jet washed, I'd expect several months at an absolute minimum, whatever you use, even with a light oil.
Suspension grease, thinner so you can use a bit more and doesn't seem to break down like thicker water resistant grease. The old Pace stuff was great.
I use Velox Universal grease, it's pink & translucent - a bit thinner than my other greases.
Whenever I'm not quite sure if something is a grease job or not, I use that.
Got it for a few quid off PX years ago, but there only seem to be little 25g tubes of it for sale now.
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I’d question what you’re doing with the bike for anything to last only a few weeks. I’ve never serviced hubs more regularly than a couple of years and a good few thousand miles… Unless it’s submerged in water or jet washed, I’d expect several months at an absolute minimum, whatever you use, even with a light oil.
+1
It only needs the absolute smallest amount of grease in there, just a dot on each pawl before assembly.
The only ones I avoid are anything marketed as high/extreme pressure as they don't (slightly ironically) play nicely with bushings.