It seems like you can't trust much at all these days
 

Late last summer I bought a new RD for my trike. It seemed to work fine. But then yesterday I was doing my pre-season checks, cleaning, and repair on the trike. Among other things, I pull off the RD, pull the sprockets out, and clean and lube them. When I pulled both of them out, there was almost no grease or oil in either one!!! The bearings were glazed over with pretty much dry grease. I guess those of us that do almost all of our service work need to pull apart RDs and other assemblies to make sure they are lubed right before we use them. But why is this**********

Ran into this same thing with spark plugs that were difficult to reach (car had to be raised and the front right rim/tire removed). Now I ask for all my parts and check if they are legit. Some mechanics are unethical and looking for the quick way out thinking you will not check nor complain. One should know enough about bike repairs to know what the details are even if not wrenching yourself.

Meh,

If they weren't squealing or binding, it doesn't matter. Does anyone know how fast a pulley turns at 100rpm?

It's not fast. It won't bind up. It doesn't generate heat.

But the question is; did you buy it online or from your LBS?

At least at dealerships, auto mechanics are basically paid a set fee for each task, and get bonuses if they complete the tasks more rapidly than the spec. So they have every incentive to cut corners.

Never had any such problem.

Although I may not inspect the RD pulleys on a new bike... within the first month or 2 I will usually partially disassemble the moving parts to ensure proper lubrication is in place. Granted, I don't buy a lot of new bikes, but if anything is handed to me that is used I will go through it with a fine tooth comb no matter how much the seller assures me it was recently taken care of.

Ah yes, the constant worry of marginal power losses due to pulley inefficiencies on bikes with 14 foot long chains.

What problem are you trying to “fix” by pulling the derailer off and/or disassembling it? There is no need for that to be done for any general reason. And do you know how much grease is needed in the bearings of a derailer. I’m assuming that the jockey wheels you are talking about are the common sleeve bearing. These are the worst bearings on the bicycle but they somehow work without issue for thousands of miles. I’ve got hundreds of them at my local co-op that are old, crusty, dirty, and mistreated that work just fine without anything being done to them. Seldom do I run across one that has any problem turning freely.

Taking something apart to put more grease in it for no reason other than you think it needs more grease is wrongheaded. It might even be detrimental. We tend to overload bearings on bicycles with grease and all it does is attract dirt to get into the bearings that we think need more grease. The load on bicycles is small and the friction reduction needs are very low. Slathering grease in a thick layer on everything isn’t a general solution to a problem that probably doesn’t exist.

A simple SQUIRT of WD40 :eek: solves the problem.

Would that be 100 times a minute?

1.4 times a second. Lucky there aren't more fires along side the road I ride....

I prefer a non caloric silicone based cooking spray.

It would seem that anything I've purchased in the last two decades is only lubed with "assembly" lube. Which means a very thin coat of something that resembled oil or grease at some point.

I don't know it much matters. In one the mailman hands you a box in the other a guy behind the counter hands you a box.

If you had only paid for Dura-Ace you would have ball bearing pulleys and you'd know that Shimano had oiled them with their special oil in their special room

I worked in bike shops for many years starting in the early 1970s. I don't recall ever seeing any new derailleur with visible grease at the pulleys, except maybe the Huret derailleurs that used pulleys with ball bearings. Huret's were also the only pulleys that ever seized, as I recall, ending up lopsided from chain abrasion.

If the crank is rotating at 100, I have no idea how fast the pulley spins.

It sounds very mathy.

I once had a new derailler that wore out within a year so that the cage wobbled left to right excessively causing poor shifting. It may have been poorly machined in the first place. I don't know why your derailler had no lube but I do know that is is not uncommon for people in a beaurocracy to be promoted beyond their level of competency. The outstanding example is the Challenger disaster and more recently Boeing's headaches so this occurs at all levels.

How about a semi osmotic non nutrient cereal varnish?

Weren't those the ones that didn't have any teeth to engage the chain?

Derailleurs? How many gears do you need?

Maybe DR made on a Monday or Friday. Or cost savings have reached a peak into madness

I think the pulley assembler somewhere in the Orient was sick that day so the pulleys didn't get lubed. Turned out the guy had Coronavirus, so the OP should be much happier.