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09-11-10, 03:05 AM
I came from a background in industrial manuf. engineering. About 12 years ago, we began substituting some our use of permanent (Red Loctite) and semi-permanent (Blue Loctite) with a product from a different manuf. called Vibra-Tite (VT). This stuff -- which looks, spreads and stinks like rubber-cement -- turned out to be so effective in myriad industrial applications (one nice thing being some level of POST-assemble adjustment) that we ditched Loctite, Red or Blue, altogether. I took a vendor sample bottle of VC-3 home and applied it on various bike threads. Since I do almost all Utility or Touring cycling, my bikes see a lot of load and vibration, especially at rack and fender mounts. Vibra-tite turned out to be great for this!
VT used to be avail in a very unfriendly/messy-to-use (typical of industrial products!) rubber-cement-type applicator (VC-3) (http://www.vibra-tite.com/vc-3.jsp). Now, I see the company has made it avail. in a much-easier-to-use gel-pump and squeeze precision-applicator bottle (http://www.vibra-tite.com/).
I saw some for sale on a Mtnbikes.net, in the old messy rubber-cement/nail-polish-like bottle ... and it's mucho-$$$$ at ~37USD. On eBay, new VC-3 bottles go for $21 + S/H, which is still $$$. (I saved several bottles from company samples over 12 years ago and the stuff is still good, even in bottles opened in the late 90's!) BTW, I left the company 8 years ago, so no more freebies!)
I saw that Amazon has the Gel-Pump for about $17.50, or about half the industrial VC-3 type, in both medium- and high-strength versions. I don't know anything about these new forms of VT -- if they are half as good as the original (but messy) VC-3, it should still prove quite useful for bike use.
Anyone else using this product?
BTW: Dunno about the new Gels, but if you use VC-3, do it outdoors and with breeze or wind blowing away from you. This stuff puts out vapors way worse than rubber cement.
Orig VC-3 Vibra-tite:
http://www.mtnbikes.net/images/products/UnitedCycle/5/ND-VBT3.jpg
VT used to be avail in a very unfriendly/messy-to-use (typical of industrial products!) rubber-cement-type applicator (VC-3) (http://www.vibra-tite.com/vc-3.jsp). Now, I see the company has made it avail. in a much-easier-to-use gel-pump and squeeze precision-applicator bottle (http://www.vibra-tite.com/).
I saw some for sale on a Mtnbikes.net, in the old messy rubber-cement/nail-polish-like bottle ... and it's mucho-$$$$ at ~37USD. On eBay, new VC-3 bottles go for $21 + S/H, which is still $$$. (I saved several bottles from company samples over 12 years ago and the stuff is still good, even in bottles opened in the late 90's!) BTW, I left the company 8 years ago, so no more freebies!)
I saw that Amazon has the Gel-Pump for about $17.50, or about half the industrial VC-3 type, in both medium- and high-strength versions. I don't know anything about these new forms of VT -- if they are half as good as the original (but messy) VC-3, it should still prove quite useful for bike use.
Anyone else using this product?
BTW: Dunno about the new Gels, but if you use VC-3, do it outdoors and with breeze or wind blowing away from you. This stuff puts out vapors way worse than rubber cement.
Orig VC-3 Vibra-tite:
http://www.mtnbikes.net/images/products/UnitedCycle/5/ND-VBT3.jpg