Greasing Speedplays without their expensive grease gun! - th

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dvincere
Posts: 198
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:40 pm

by dvincere

NickyM10 wrote:I have never had to but grease on my speedplay pedals only a little on the cleats which they
recommend you to do,perhaps this is because it does not rain very much here.
Great advice to us speedplay owners! :thumbup:
Thank you.



If you notice the pedals can make many rotations when you spin them freely with your hand, then they are definitely running low and grease and in the territory of damaging the bearings. I destroyed my first pair riding them like this. Now, every time they seem to spin a bit too freely, I pull out a syringe a chemist gave me for free and inject some grease. This pair has lasted for many thousands of miles longer so far.

by Weenie


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wasabi1
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:57 pm

by wasabi1

What grease do you use?

shadwell
Posts: 575
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 1:25 am
Location: Gold Coast Australia

by shadwell

OK as you appear to have missed the many previous answers...

USE A WATERPROOF BEARING GREASE

It doesn't matter what one in this application as the bearing speed is low, the load is low to moderate, and the access for reapplication is easy..

So grab ANY waterproof bearing grease from any auto store; Castrol, Penrite or similar for blk low cost... or i you want to spend more money for littl noticeable improvement get a smaller voume of bike specific....whatever, and grease them as shown.. ..
Once they start to spin freely again re apply if not before hand... if you have a priod of wet weather re-apply... etc ......This is not a complex issue.....

And yes same stuff can be used on headsets and hubs.... :thumbup:

dvincere
Posts: 198
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:40 pm

by dvincere

I use Finish Line teflon grease for no reason other than I have a big tub of it on hand. I grease things often but bike parts just don't use a lot. A lot of people recommend grabbing the cheapest marine grease you can buy and that's probably what I'll do in a couple years when I run out of the tub I have.

teufelhunden222
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:16 pm

by teufelhunden222

http://www.lucasoil.com/products/displa ... headTitle= - Lucas G3 Racing Grease

Best low friction grease I have ever found. (tried lots of different greases on circle track asphalt cars)-David
[img]<iframe%20height='160'%20width='300'%20frameborder='0'%20allowtransparency='true'%20scrolling='no'%20src='http://app.strava.com/athletes/1677950/activity-summary/ddf436fc1ca509b20d4637cfa80c928da771d2c6'></iframe>[/img]

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shoemakerpom2010
Posts: 296
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:28 pm
Location: Palm Coast, Fl.

by shoemakerpom2010

dvincere wrote:I use Finish Line teflon grease for no reason other than I have a big tub of it on hand. I grease things often but bike parts just don't use a lot. A lot of people recommend grabbing the cheapest marine grease you can buy and that's probably what I'll do in a couple years when I run out of the tub I have.


I too have used that since my speedplay dealer suggested it over ordering some unknown expensive grease. The problem I had was like somebody mentioned I waited too long and the rollerbearing seized up on the right pedal. I was lucky enough to have a spare ss body to replace it. I then packed it with grease by taking the bodies off first and cleaning them out then put new grease in. lesson learned......

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Rick
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Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 4:30 pm

by Rick

As mentioned above, I really like Phil Wood grease. But later in last season I switched to using a heavy marine grease (from Autozone) on my speedplays. It seemed to stay in place longer. The Phil Wood is definitely a better lubricating grease, but it would get runny and ooze out easily in hot conditions. The heavy marine grease was more of a "barrier grease" than a lubricating grease, and it stays inside almost completely.

As I mentioned before, I have run speedplays for long periods without lubing at all. So I don't really think the exact type of grease is a big deal. But this was in very dry conditions. In wet conditions, or in a dirty environment, you probably want to keep the grease in and the dust/water out. So a thicker "barrier grease" may be the way to go. The marine grease is almost waxy in consistency.

MileHighMark
Posts: 199
Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:50 pm

by MileHighMark

I use an inexpensive Dualco grease gun (see pic below) to lube my frogs. It has a short, needle-like tip, and it works quite well.

For grease I use white lithium grease that I purchase at the local big box hardware store. At some point, however, I must have purchased some crappy grease, because one of the frogs all but seized. Upon disassembling the offending pedal, I found that the grease had hardened to Silly Putty (or modeling clay) consistency. After wiping everything clean and re-greasing, it's been fine.

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ezzy
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:31 pm

by ezzy

Wow! Great post! Finally got me to grease my pedals. Have had them 4 years but never greaset. I used some finish line Teflon lgrease that I use for the rest of the bike. I removed the pedal as suggested - cant believe how easy it was! Many thanks for sharing such a great advice!

drmutley
Posts: 338
Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2011 4:23 am

by drmutley

ezzy wrote:Wow! Great post! Finally got me to grease my pedals. Have had them 4 years but never greaset. I used some finish line Teflon lgrease that I use for the rest of the bike. I removed the pedal as suggested - cant believe how easy it was! Many thanks for sharing such a great advice!


*thumbs up*

teufelhunden222
Posts: 92
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 9:16 pm

by teufelhunden222

to be honest, if you are wanting really low friction and ride 400-500 miles a month. You should regrease about 1 time a month. A$25 tube of grease will last about a year. On the circle track cars we would clean and relube the bearings before every race. So I figure once a month is not to much to ask. I have probably tried no less then 40 different types of greases. when you get a good one, the difference is quite shocking. Do not be afraid to spend money on a good grease-David
[img]<iframe%20height='160'%20width='300'%20frameborder='0'%20allowtransparency='true'%20scrolling='no'%20src='http://app.strava.com/athletes/1677950/activity-summary/ddf436fc1ca509b20d4637cfa80c928da771d2c6'></iframe>[/img]

NWSAlpine
Posts: 296
Joined: Fri May 18, 2012 7:11 pm
Location: FL

by NWSAlpine

I just use my standard gun with a needle tip from Ace Hardware. Bulk tubes of marine wheel bearing grease as speedplay recommends. Very easy and I do it about once every 3 months which is overkill. I like to over maintain my bike.

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reknop
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Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2015 10:15 am

by reknop

MileHighMark wrote:I use an inexpensive Dualco grease gun (see pic below) to lube my frogs. It has a short, needle-like tip, and it works quite well.

For grease I use white lithium grease that I purchase at the local big box hardware store. At some point, however, I must have purchased some crappy grease, because one of the frogs all but seized. Upon disassembling the offending pedal, I found that the grease had hardened to Silly Putty (or modeling clay) consistency. After wiping everything clean and re-greasing, it's been fine.

Image



I've ordered a Hazet Mini Grease Gun 2162M in combination with Muc Off Bio Grease.

http://www.hazet.de/produktkatalog/product_info.php?products_id=896185634
https://muc-off.com/collections/bicycle-step-2-protect/products/bio-grease

So far I'm very pleased with the result, and I'll report back after a few more and longer rides. :)
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https://www.cycling-review.net

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petert123
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Location: London, UK

by petert123

I'm looking for a grease gun that I can also use with Speedplay zero's. Are the guns that take a tube of grease with a thread better - I get the impression that with some of the general purpose guns you have to hand-fill with grease, like the Daulco mentioned above; Park tools make one too?

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Dan Gerous
Posts: 2413
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:28 pm

by Dan Gerous

reknop wrote:
Fri Jul 22, 2016 1:07 pm
I've ordered a Hazet Mini Grease Gun 2162M in combination with Muc Off Bio Grease.

http://www.hazet.de/produktkatalog/prod ... =896185634
https://muc-off.com/collections/bicycle ... bio-grease

So far I'm very pleased with the result, and I'll report back after a few more and longer rides. :)
You'll probably need to regrease more often with Muc-Off Bio Grease, it's not very durable in my experience, not a very good grease... but it smells nice!

Personally I grew tired of having to re-grease Speedplays so often if you ride no matter the weather. After a bit of wear and tear, the little plastic cap doesn't hold tight enough in the pedal body and it leaks with grease always squeezing out of there and barely going into the bearings. It's easy when they're new and better with a bigger grease gun than those little bike specific cheap ones. It would be nice if Speedplay updated the Zeros to a threaded metal cap like the Syzr uses, it would be a tad heavier but it would stay put and keep that end sealed when presurring grease in, Syzrs are a lot easier to re-grease. I was thinking about actually gluing new caps in to make it better, but I since switched to Shimano pedals mostly for the low maintenance and easier to live with cleats.

by Weenie


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