Sounds good but when I read Bicycling Science by Frank Rowland Whitt and David Gordon Wilson they debunked that idea. But I am with you I would just repack the hubs every now and then. Steven Willis The Bike Stand 1778 East Second Street Scotch Plains NJ 07076 908-322-3330 http://www.thebikestand.com
> Scott Minneman wrote:
>
> "Speaking of grease, did I gather that somebody on the list had actually
> packed the barrels of their Campy hubs so full of grease that they could
> use the oil port to force contaminated grease out the side seals?
> There's no
> way they should be packed like that, right? The drag of spinning a hub
> body around that blob of stationary grease and fixed spindle (yes, I
> know enough about fluid dynamics to realize it'd be more complex than
> that, but would still have massive drag) would be really nasty.
>
> I hope, at least, that whomever even considers that style of lubrication
> is using *really* light consistency grease (NLGI 0). If not, unpack
> those hubs and your pedaling will get a lot easier."
>
> The drag is actually very minimal. Once the hub is ridden around the
> block, the grease is no longer tight against the axle and with the wheel
> out, the hub feels almost no different from a stock hub (I have a NOS
> front hub and a 20-years-of-grease-in-the-barrel hub in my home office
> now). The drag when you are out on the road would probably be measured
> in small fractions of seconds over a kilometer.
>
> To me, the thought of always having clean grease on the bearings is
> worth it. Nobody is paying me to race against the clock. These are hubs
> on my daily riders, and not only am I not paid to race, I'm also not
> paid to fix my own stuff, so I don't want it breaking down.
>
> Regards,
> Earle Young,
> Madison, Wisc.
> Offering expert wheelbuilding service for classic and modern bikes.