Raoul and others...
Sturmey-Archer gear oil is just that; it was specifically designed for their hub gears. The problem here is the insistance on finding a suitable replacement when there is, in fact, no need to: it's still made as Raleigh cycle oil and also Halfords Cycle oil.
We live in too cynical an age. It's presumed that S/A oil is "just 30 weight or 20 weight or whatever" in a fancy package. The proverbial snake oil. It's not. Honest. This oil was first developed in the 1920s when Raleigh bought S/A and faced increasing problems with warranty repairs etc. caused by folks using heavy motor oil and worse, 3-in-1 which despite what they say now, did had vegetable extract in it originally. Hence they designed this. It was original sold as Raleigh Cycle Oil and ironically it's back to that now in the Raleigh (UK) website.
There is also a problem of always associating a bicycle with a motorcycle or a car. It is neither. Hence the closest oil, if you insisted, would be Singer Sewing Machine Oil not something designed for a motor running a very high revs and generating a lot of heat.
S/A may be whale semen and buttermilk mixed in equal measure or oil waste from the Royal Navy, but it works. Always. Never, ever gums. Ever. And no S/A hub properly oiled (I oil mine every three weeks) is going to fail under normal use.
You can still buy the original S/A oil on eBay and some of the Chopper sites offer it; I got six bottles not long ago via one of these. A bottle lasts forever.. I still have the original tin my dad bought me in 1966. Even then he complained at it's cost ($1.25 as I recall!), but he collected Alfa Romeo cars so he knew: you use what you're told to use. Period.
So my advice: spend the $10 a bottle of this usually costs on eBay and be done with it!
Peter Kohler Washington DC USA
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