Dan Chase

Hi Guys,
I recently picked up this rather cool English late `20`s race bike - think its a Russ with Chater-Lee feetings but can`t be sure as decals are gone - looks like it was over painted green in WW2, then stripped back leaving most of the black and some green but no badges or decals.

Here`s the question - like most early Russ frames it has two grease/oil nipples on the headtube for lubrication of the headset - any idea what/how to lube these up correctly?

Pics below, Dan

Velo Mule

The picture is out of focus, so it is hard to tell what exactly those fittings are, however, they look like regular grease fittings also called Zerk fittings. If that is the case a grease gun with a standard grease fitting will work. With that said, I may be inclined not to use the grease gun and just grease the headset by taking it apart. This will allow you to clean all the surfaces, inspect the races, cones and evaluate the balls. The grease it like a mid-century bike.

I think using the grease fittings will pump too much grease into the places that don't really need grease. Just my two cents, unless when you take the headset apart you find that those grease fittings connect directly to the bearing race. If so, then next time you know what to do.

SwimmerMike 

Cool bike. Please post more pictures. Is it a SA 3 speed? I like the fact it has the stem designed for a head clip application.

I just put together the head clip on my mid 40's Fothergill last weekend. With the construction of a head clip with the double races, I can't see how the grease ports could do a good job on getting the new grease in and the old grease out especially if the old grease is in bad shape. So I concur with @veloMule that I would take it apart and inspect the races and bearings. My advice would be to be careful there should be 29 (if I remember correctly) 1/8" loose bearings trying to escape.

repechage

The fitting for the lower race, gravity will help, for the upper… might need to invert the bike.
‘either way they look a distance away from the bearings.
‘old Italian bikes might have a screw behind the head tube And centered, that was an oil port.

Dan Chase

Figures that it would be best to strip, clean an re-grease - think I was hoping to avoid chasing loads of loose BB`s around the floor... Dan

repechage

consider flooding it with grease to assess what it accomplishes and hopefully the grease will become a bearing “retainer”, have a magnet and a cup at hand, but I would replace the bearings, just verify the count.

markk900

I too would be interested in more clear and detailed pictures. Looks like a fascinating bike.

As an aside, on the subject of chasing loose headset bearings, I have taken to placing a large, soft and presumably already dirty towel (to avoid domestic disputes) on the ground under the front fork when removing it. With the wheel out and with some (but not a lot of) care any bearings that I don’t catch in my hand or in the existing grease fall into the towel, and with a thick soft towel they don’t bounce. Makes it easy to find all the little suckers.

macstuff 

These are Tecalamit grease fittings. They need a special grease gun/ injector.
In those days, most upper level English bikes came with a kit. In this kit would be a Tecalamit palm greaser.
The greasers came in different length increments.
As has been mentioned, it's hard to imagine the use of them since they are usually nowhere near the bearings. These fittings are found on the frame head, steerer clips, BB shell and hubs.
These fittings were on everything mechanical, bikes, cars, motorcycles, all types of machinery. Pretty messy stuff since the fittings are smooth. The next step was the zirc that has a knob on the end that fits to the injector. With the Tecalemit, just as much grease came out the edges as went in the fitting.
Here is a pic of one I have in my 30s Armstrong kit....

Johno59

Back in the day grease used to harden so rather than strip the bearing and repack it with new grease you just squitted in a few drops of oil to keep the grease moist. We are talking once a year here, so it is a mindset from an era when you rode bikes for decades without repacking bearings with new grease.
I recently repacked an old 1930s Sunbeam that had the original grease and wax paper identifying the two pack application.
The ' softner' wasn't oil but you can get substitutes. Don't pump the whole housing with grease, you have grease oozing out over everything for hundreds of miles.

macstuff 

You'd be hard pressed to squirt oil into a Tecelamit grease fitting. After WW2 these fittings changed to what the English called a "Partridge" which is for what you are referring to.
A partridge is the fitting where the cap lifts up with finger tips. It is most commonly seen on European BB shells and Sturmey Archer 3spd hubs although most hubs had them till the switch to the hole with a clip over it. Then to no fitting or hole at all like we have now pretty much since the 1960s.

I'll correct myself.... Later, they did use pin oilers to depress the ball inside the fitting to emulsify the hard grease
Still, the bike has to be turned upside down and sideways, etc. to be useful to nearby bearings.
I have a MacLean that has the fittings above the bearings where gravity might help but most are so far away from the bearings you'd have to inject a lot of grease and make a mess.

Johno59

On pre - war bikes it was very easy to lose the tiny little brass bolts that capped the emulsifier access hole . So any port or bolt in a storm. I imagine a squirt of WD 40 using the thin tube that many pressurised lubes now posses, inserted and snaked up towards the bearing would remove the need to rely on gravity but you still have to cap the access hole.
Best to just strip it and repack the bearing with modern grease.
On the Sunbeams the bungs for the steerer lubes holes have a 1/16 " diameter Whitworth thread!

macstuff 

So you're saying that all 13 of my English bikes, 20s-50s, all found in seemingly original condition, all of them in the US, 7 of them having Tecelamit nipples throughout ( not partridges or plugs ), didn't come with strictly English Tecelamit nipples that were never used in the US?
That different people through time, in the US, before the internet, sent off for Tecelamit nipples to fill the holes that originally came with plugs?
That the Chater Lea head clips and early English hubs for sale right now in England and the ones on my bikes all came with plugs, not Tecelamit nipples?
aaaand that he and this Russ are victims of the same ruse?
Hmmm. I'll have to sleep on that.

Yet I do agree to simply repack the bearings and forget about using them.
Aaaand to take note that whitworth 28p threads are what that bike has and not to try imperial 26p fittings.

Johno59

From what I have experienced where a bearing is sited inside a lug - BB shell or some very early IGHs I have encountered fittings/nipples that enabled the introduction of a emulsifier to soften the grease. The location was too distant from the actual bearing assembly to suggest grease was to be applied from there. The very small bolts were located on tubing and as such the thinness of the tubing did not lend itself to a heavier nipple so tiny brass bolts gave access for the emulsifier.
Whether bolt or nipple grease applied from there never ended well for me.
No end of closures were used that the previous owners had utilised that were not standard.
The best lubrication I have encountered are oil baths. I have some BB , gears, chains and sprockets that are over a hundred years old and look brand new. They are all filled thru a threaded plug.