Originally Posted by
mouse
On a side note / more of a question. What do you guys who have single speeds ‘lube’ your freewheeled with? I originally packed it with some Phil wood grease but upon rotating the cranks it felt too thick. I cleaned the bearings of most of it and it seemed to free it up some. I’m thinking some lighter weight white grease or?? This freewheel will likely get replaced for a much more decent one in the future, but will be good to know.
I asked White Industries about this and they recommended Tri-Flow or Phil's Tenacious Oil. This strikes me as odd as my understanding is that the Phil oil (I've never tried it) is much more viscous than Tri-Flow, and I'm not convinced they use either of those products when they assemble them at the factory (near as I can tell they use a very light coat of White Lightning Crystal grease, but I haven't confirmed this). Personally, I use a only few drops of Tri-Flow in my WI freewheels and they seems to work fine. Any other non-sealed/serviceable freewheels get drowned in Tri-Flow but a heavier oil might be better.
Freewheels are interesting to me in that when they are moving, there's no load, and static when under load.