*after I wrote this, it seemed that it might have been better placed in the mechanic's forum; I tried to move it but it seems to be stuck here.

For better or worse, I do seem to have a marked obsession with researching and testing drivetrain lubricants, offerings from within and without the bicycle industry as well as self-derived kitchen-sink compositions.

(Sidebar: Last year I did some qEEG neurofeedback work and the initial evaluation showed marked hypersensitivity to high, tinny sounds. "So a noisy chain on a bicycle, for example, would make me lose my freaking mind?" I asked. The doctor nodded vigorously.)

Finding ways to reduce shift-lever effort is another area I've done a good bit of product testing in- few things are more pleasant than shifters that work like butter! Unfortunately, as with chain lubricants, there are few if any that are suited to the materials, loads and environmental conditions involved. What has generally worked best is dry, clean cables in like-new condition- and the most intelligent advice to date has been to avoid putting anything on them at all. Why is that, and is there anything better?

Cut to chase:

1) Any product that contains a petroleum-based lubricant will cause the teflon cable housings to degrade faster. Most industry products which advertise themselves as being "Great for cables too!" are petroleum based.

2) there are only a handful of lubricants in the known universe that do NOT degrade plastic. Silicone is one. The chemically inert (and ridiculously expensive) DuPont Krytox PPE/PTFE is another.

3) Final testing came down to these two products. Used on brand-new premium Jagwire shift cables, both were demonstrably superior to no lubricant at all. Simply because I had paid 57 dollars for a 2 ounce tube of it, I had expected that the teflon-packed Krytox would outperform the permatex silicone grease purchased for pennies from Pep Boys. I used the silicone grease for a month, then the Krytox for a month, then returned to re-check both. The more frequently I compared them, the clearer it became that the silicone grease was the better of the two.

Application technique that works best: lightly coat cable in silicone grease (in auto stores you'll find it under the name of "dielectric Tune Up grease" , comes in a tiny 1/2 oz or 3 oz tube), run it into housing once, pull it back out to wipe off the excess then install as usual.



And what is the last, most important thing?
Independent confirmation (for my benefit, mainly)
After riding my bike around the block, Bike Shop Owner- Acquaintance (BSOA) said "this is the smoothest shifting bike I have ever ridden, it feels like the lever throw is like, half of what Sram Red usually is"

So: try it if you want to, don't try it if you don't want to.
Shimano Special Grease for cables is the only silicone-based product made, but good luck finding it cheap, if at all. Some of the ceramic-bearing greases also appear to be silicone based, but I can't verify that. Here's a solution you can purchase around the corner for a couple of bucks that will bring you much happiness, and the benefits are lasting.

Luckily, the Krytox will not go to waste- there are a couple of jobs for which it is supremely suited: shift lever internal mechs, for one. First, because there are many plastic/metal interfaces in shifter mechs, and second, Krytox does not attract dirt nearly to the degree that standard greases do- that's a big plus when you have a complex mechanism that is basically open to air. 57 dollars is still insane, but it's three lifetimes worth.

Good info. Gerry. Thanks!

When will the creepy video interpretation of your research become available and how many milliseconds will you grant us to watch it? Also, thank you. I will add a tube of dielectric silicone grease to my bike tool kit.

ha ha! Creepy videos are glorious fun to make but...er...somehow seem to wind up in threads getting shut down.

So I am nobly sacrificing my own pleasure to make sure the information remains intact and available. In the five years i've been testing and trying out new ideas, I've only found two or three that could improve most people's experience of cycling, and 2 or three more that would be useful to specific areas. In all, my success rate is probably about 1%: these findings were hard-fought for, so I do want to make sure I do my best to make sure they are available to others. None of them are innovations in the true sense. I just like to find things that work better.

There is much larger Third Estate of things I've tried that do work extremely well, and that others out there are experimenting with as well: ranging from narrower drop bars, 1x10 drivetrains and rounded helmets- all the way to a prolonged trial of a dairy/wheat/soy-free diet (want to cut your body-fat % in half?). But these either require too great a suspension of disbelief, would appeal to only a small group of people, or, as with the example of narrower drop bars, are eventually going to adopted as general practice anyway.

I don't want to hi-jack my own thread and distract from the main point- which is that silicone grease will positively make your Sunday ride a little more fun to get out of bed at 6:00 am for. But I think it helps people warm up to ideas when they have an idea of the background they come from.


And thanks!

Picking up silicone grease for my next cable job. Good report!

Way better than mine. My friends still refer to me as the guy who almost killed tigger because of a DIY frame I built. And yes, that's tigger as in the Disney Character.

+1.

Not new, but informative and well worth putting out there.

Gerry, thanks for the post and info. I used to grease my cables but did not realize the difference between silicone or petroleum based. I noticed with my most recent build that Shimano specifically mentions not using lubricant on their new DA cables. Perhaps due to their pre-installed coating?

have you looked at these and any thoughts? I imagine the coating would wear over time and make lubing worthwhile but at their current cost I'm not planning to try just yet!

good to know...next time I change out my cables I'll be trying this. thanks gerry!

Changing cables this weekend, so this is timely info. Thanks for the tip!

I shld have included this in the first post- i'll place there too.

To the fellow a few posts above- shimano, along with other cable mfrs., recommend no lube on their cables because they presume that most people would use a petroleum-based lubricant that would wreck the housing, exactly as I myself did with a 50 dollar set of XTR cables two years ago.

The impact of petroleum-based lubricants on housing is just not good. Every time I tried a new one I would think "by George I've got it!" And then two days later feel that unmistakable grind of metal rubbing on metal, along with a ton of dirt collecting around the cable exit points where the lube was running out. I finally took the time to do what I should have done in the first place- research.

I did play with mixing teflon powder with the silicone grease, and found the same result I usually get when I mix teflon with something: it confers a mysterious prestige value to the product, but not much else. In this case, as with chain-lube, the effect was detrimental.

Fyi- don't be put off if it feels like you are pushing the cable through Grandma's molasses the first time you use the silicone grease; I gave up on it prematurely because of this, and that was a mistake. It clears and gets super-smooth very quickly, and now there is a reserve of grease inside the cable that will keep it that way. The benefits last.

Nice thanks! Do you lube your brake cables too?

How's it compare to Shimano's SIS SP41 "Special Cable Grease" ?

This thread is worthless without accompanying video.