Originally Posted by
habilis
Don't know where you could find them these days, but they sound like they could protect hubs, FWs, etc. I also recall reading that a seal of heavy grease works for hubs. That was in some car repair manuals back when wheel bearings were not sealed as they are today. My FW (and probably everyone else's) has a tiny gap where the body rotates around the center part. A smear of grease along that gap could do no harm, and would keep both water and dirt out, whereas the pipe cleaner might actually wick water in. Grit would accumulate on the surface of the grease and could then be easily scraped off. Maybe first apply grease and then the pipe cleaner?
It's usually referred to as chenille (French for caterpillar) although that is also a type of yarn. As for chenille pipe cleaners and you can find whole aisles of it at just about any hobby store.
It is, however, a bandaid approach that worked well in the days before hubs with the kinds of seals we have now. The seals on loose bearing hubs like Shimano's are actually quite good at keeping crap out of the hub. The ideal all-weather hub is cartridge bearing hub. Most all bottom brackets are now cartridge bearing as well. That's the way to go.