mosscoveredhat

I have some special gipiemme pista hubs with oil ports... what kind of oil are you supposed to use?

HillRider

Light motor oil will work fine.

n4zou

I use bar and chain oil for use with a chain saw. It's made with normal motor oil with additives to make it sticky. As long as you don’t over fill the hub it will not sling out. If the hubs are old stock or have been unused for years you should clean out any old oil and residue before using them. If you have your LBS service them be sure and take a small amount of the oil you will be using so the mechanic can prelude the bearings and races with it as he reassembles the hub. If you do it yourself simply place all your bearing balls in a small cup filled with a small amount of your choice of oil. Apply a small amount of oil on the races and cones so nothing is dry as you assemble the hubs. Using sticky chain oil will make the job very easy as the balls stay in place just as grease would.

froze

DO NOT USE OIL.

HOWEVER, mine use the same grease you use to repack your wheel bearings and I use Park hub grease (white in color) only because the Suntour brand is no longer available. What your suppose to do is get a grease gun from Park which comes with the attachement to fit into the port then slowly push the grease through port and let it ooze out of the sides of the hubs till the grease looks clean, then clean the grease off the sides. The slight amount of grease left on the sides acts as a water seal because these seals are not the sealed kind like hubs today except for the Campy Record and Phil Woods. This type of hub with the port injection has the potential to last way longer then the other type because you can easily relube and thus keep your grease cleaner then you can with the other type. Also these type of ported hubs tend to roll smoother and spin better then the other type.

Those hubs are very nice hubs, mine are the Suntour Superbe hubs with the same type of port. And because I frequently reinject grease into the hubs, my hubs have over 145,000 miles on them and they have never been rebuilt! I also knew a person who had the Phil Woods hubs and toured all over the world; when I ran into about 3 years ago he had over 150,000 miles on those hubs and never had them rebuilt either because he kept the grease clean.

San Rensho 

When you say oil port, do you mean a hole in the center of the hub that is covered with a clip? If so, oil it. If its a grease fitting, then follow Froze's advice.

HillRider

I presume your Sun Tour hubs were "Grease Guard" types and indeed did use grease for the lube. The OP is describing a different make and they probably do have oil ports. Oil is a perfectly acceptable lube for hubs as long as it is added frequently. You just don't do an annual lube the way you can with grease lubed hubs.

BTW, as noted an expert as John Forester recommend oil, frequently used, as a hub lube.

FarHorizon

Hi froze!

I remember having 1970's hubs with an oil port, and the manufacturer's instructions that came with the hub (don't remember the brand) specifically said to use a "light machine oil" on a weekly or monthly basis depending on use. I don't know which is proper for the OP's hubs, but some hubs were specifically intended to have OIL added on a periodic basis.

OLDYELLR

It also has additives to keep from sticking to tree sap (resin). It's great as a chain oil because it also penetrates bettween links, pins and bushings and clings to surfaces instead of getting thrown off. It may not be the ultimate lubricant for hub bearings, but any lubricant is better than none at all. It's always better to use any oil you have than to put off lubrication until you have the perfect oil.

OLDYELLR

It also has additives to keep from sticking to tree sap (resin). It's great as a chain oil because it also penetrates between links, pins and bushings and clings to surfaces instead of getting thrown off. It may not be the ultimate lubricant for hub bearings, but any lubricant is better than none at all. It's always better to use any oil you have than to put off lubrication until you have the perfect oil.

Grand Bois

My all-time favorite chain lube is Le Tour semi dry. They say it was developed as a chainsaw chain lube. I used to get it from Branford Bike. I don't know where I'm going to be able to get it now that Branford is gone. I may have to try the chainsaw lube they sell at Home Depot.

Falkon 

as yes, the oil hole. I have campy hubs on my commuter with the oil holes. The hubs are cup and cone with greased bearings, though. Oil is great if you're racing and don't mind throwing your wheels away after the race.

froze

This oil thing has struck me as a bit odd. So I checked my old repair manual and all they recommend is grease whether injected or not type of hubs; then I went to the Park web site and all they suggest using is Park Lube 1000...of course that's their product but it's good stuff, but they only talk about sealed systems. The only thing that I could find came from my book concerning internal 3 speed rearends that used oil, other than that all brands of either adjustable cone or cartridge bearing hubs all use grease. So where does any repair book mention oil?

And yes I came out of the mid 70's when I began to race and no hub I ever seen even back then used oil...again except for the 3 speed internal hub jobs from Archer and Schwinn.

Forgot one thing, my first road bike (used and not a serious thing just a kid thing) had some sort of French hubs I think were made by Huret, anyway the bike was from the early 60's and those hubs used grease.

AGuinness

Mosscoveredhat:

Be careful with the little black cover for the oil port! I have a similar hubset and accidentally scratched the aluminum surface of the hubs with the little steel covers. The best way to remove it is to get a thumbnail underneath each of the opposite ends and pull outward in either direction simultaneously, till you pry it off. It's a bit tricky.

I only removed them out of curiosity. I don't think oil has any advantage over grease.

I think this is what he's talking about:

froze

Oil is not as thick as grease thus your protection level won't be as good thus your bearings will wear out faster, also oil will leak out of the sides since it is thinner thus eventually your hub will run short on oil and speed up the wear on your bearings.

But don't take my word for it, or any repair manuals for that matter, go ahead and use oil.

HillRider

I just reread the OP and realized the hubs are Gipimme pista hubs, i.e. track hubs. Track riders usually use oil in their hubs to get the minimum amount of drag. Wear and durability aren't a problem because of the relatively clean, dry riding environment and the hubs can be relubed very frequently.

2manybikes

Exactly...

Track hubs for the track. Lousy weather protection from the seals, but low rolling resistance. Oil for the track. low rolling resistance, lousy for the street.

Street hubs for the street. Better weather sealing but a little more rolling resistance from the seals. Grease for the street for less maintenance, better rain protection, and not a mess. But higher rolling resistance.

Find an exploded view of a Dura ace track hub and compare it to a Dura ace street hub. You can see how the seals are different and why there is less friction. And why the track hubs won't keep the dirt and water out as well.

froze

Track hubs or no, I had a front high flange track hub made in 72 (Miche) and it used grease...though I did not use it on the track; but I remember the instructions that came with the hub only mentioned grease; and again, even my old repair manuel had a section for track hubs and they too mentioned using grease; even Phil Woods, Bontrager (yes they make track wheelsets), Campy, Shimano track hubs use grease. Every web site I tried to find only mentions using grease. And I use to know track racers (that's how I got the front track hub) and all those guys (at least the ones I knew) used grease.

I still want to read where oil is acceptable to use in hubs.

FarHorizon

Well, since I don't have those 70's hubs anymore, much less the manual that came with them, you're just SOL. Whether you get to read it or not, the manual that came with my hubs said OIL - not grease.

froze

FarHorizon; I'm not doubting your memory about those hubs, nor trying to cause a fight. I just cannot find any hub that used grease after wasting about an hour on the internet trying to find something where oil was used. I even ran a search for Gipiemme pista hubs, only to find that new hubs use grease and nothing was found on older 70's hubs.

So I surrender because I'm tired of all the searching and just take your word on this one!

FlatTop

I have a bike that takes oil in the front hub, bottom bracket and rear hub.

It keeps one busy.

Falkon 

Jesus H. Christ! They take EITHER. That's why the oil hole is there, to put oil in. You don't HAVE to use oil, but it's there so you can use oil. You'll just be throwing your wheels away sooner.

froze

Ok, so they take either, but with that kind of logic you could use veggy oil or whatever you have around the house, you'll just throw away your wheels sooner. I guess that's why the manufactures and repair manuals recommend grease so your hubs last longer? Now again I'm talking about most hubs not the Gipiemme hubs FarHorizon was talking about.

kenhill3

I've got some old Campy hubs with the oil ports, and I use the holes to inject grease. Also, nobody has mentioned that the oil method will end up distributing the oil out to the rims eventually.

n4zou

I have thousands of miles on a set of Miche Competition hubs and the older gentleman I got them from had put thousands of miles on them as well. Open them up for the once a year clean out service and they look like new. It makes no difference if the lubrication is grease or oil as long as the bearings are properly lubricated. I use an old syringe to inject a small amount of bar and chain oil into the hubs once a week.
Think about this. 2-cycle motorcycle engines get oil diluted with gasoline and use ball and needle type bearings that spin at thousands of RPM with no problem for years.