[oldfart]

I need a grease for my Fox air shock. Englund Slick Honey is what is recommended but the shops have a hard getting it right now. Fox recommend against Manitou M prep.

I also need to lubricate my Hugi 240 ratchet mechanism. Hugi recommend a special grease I think called Molycoat or something like that. Again the shops can't get it from the distributor. My guess is that Slick Honey would work well for this.

Any one know of an equivalent that I could get from an auto supply store? Probably in a tub big enough to do 3,000,000 hubs for the same price as from a bike shop to do enough for 1/2 hub.

 

[oldfart]

Actually slick honey is really thin. Almost like margarine you left out in the summer. And there are no pawls in the Hugi hub. It has two geared wheels which are sprung towards each other. On each face of the wheels are about 24 ramp like teeth. Large diameter springs on each side push these star ratchets together. The outer teeth mesh with the aluminum freewheel body and hub shell. A nifty feature of this hub is no tools are needed to remove the freewheel body for maintanance. You just pull off the cassette with your fingers. The cassette stays on the body and the innards are there.

MoS2 is a mineral, molybdenite. Very similar in appearance to graphite which is one form of native carbon. It forms flat plate like crystals which slide very easily against each other which makes an excellant dry lube like graphite. My old mineral book says moly is resistant to high temperatures. Don't think I need that in a hub. But I hear you about too sticky a grease. Some have suggested vaseline or a heavy oil like Phil's. I could do that but I don't think either will last long enough.

I can't see Arlo Englund making his own grease formulation. Likely he advised some grease manufacturer what his requirements were and they said here use this. So there must be some "grease scientists" out there that can tell us all what an equivalent is.

 

[Ranger]

Servus!

I have had this argument with my roadie pal form Austria about a hundred times and we're still at a stalemate...

I would advise aginst running a light oil in the engagement mechanism of your hub as leakage will occur over time (yes, it will) and you will end up running without enough lube in the mech and you will degrade the operation of the hub. Your mechanism will run smooth for a few months and then quickly degrade. This was a trick that the team wrenches would use in the hubs on time trial bikes. Only need to run them smooth for a short period of time and then rebuild them. Thick greases are out of the question for the reasons that Nobody mentioned. The only deviation from Nobody's advice is that I would use a higher-viscosity oil than he recommends - simply to provide some "cushion" for the engagement of the star-ratchets. Your mileage may vary. What does the wrench at the LBS recommend? Another idea is to mail Hugi directly and ask them what they recommend (outside of the Moly stuff).

I'll be honest, I just put the recommended stuff from the manufacturer in my forx. I don't have to really worry about if the oil will eat away the elastomers and the OEM stuff is supposedly good for o-rings and stuff.

 

[oldfart]

The only shop in my area that I did not visit had one tube. It worked well in the hub too. Slick Honey is a very thin grease. It looks almost like oil on the shock stanchion after a ride. It doesnot seem to make the star ratchet stick at all.

I agree with the oil versus grease in hubs and freewheels. When I rebuild a shimano freewheel ( I have the tool) I use grease for the wee balls but I use a heavy oil for the pawls and outer ball race. The grease I feel forms a better "seal" and I get better operation between rebuilds.

In the mid 80's when we all used thread on freewheels, we used a Phil Wood tool to inject grease into the back side of our freewhweels. It threaded on and had o rings and a zerk fitting. After we pumped them though we'd put the bike in the stand and spin the wheel a bunch of times as fast as high gear would let us. That would loosen things up and prevent sticky pawls.

Some body makes the same thing today for freehubs called freehub buddy.

 

[Dougal THUG #1]

For your FOX shock I wouldn't use moly grease or anything of that nature, it tends to wear things out.

If you can't find slick honey your options are Manitou Prep M, Finishline teflon, Pedros synlube, SRAM jonnisnot and a few others.

Basically you want a light synthetic grease, anything that's too thick can be thinned out with chain lube mixed in.

This type of grease is very good for suspension forks too but probably is too light for a hub mechanism or bearings.

<a href="http://dougal.8m.com">Dougal.8m.com</a>

 

[strakos]

hey dougal, no html here. Use the vBcode thingies.

Hey Ranger, was soll das mit dem Servus, niemand versteht das hier...hehe.
gruesse