Oil or WD40

matrixmainframe

These may be stupid questions but here goes..............

1 Where do you apply oil? (I'm guessing oil directly onto the chain but where else?)

2 Where do you apply WD40? (I'm guessing where you don't want moisture.......so could that be gear and brake cables?)

3 If it is brake and gear cables how do you get WD40 inside the cable sleeve?

4 Also, I have just dug out my bike from a couple of years storage and there is a build up of oil on the gear cogs and derailleur. Should I fully clean the oil off and reapply fresh new oil and if so how can I get the old oil off?

Thanks

MichaelW

WD40 is mostly solvent with a small amount of waxy residue. It is a poor chain lube and only suitable because it is wet.
I use WD40 as an anti-rust treatment inside the frame tubes and as a cleaning solvent if I dont have kerosene/parrafin.
You lube cables when you replace them. Before inserting the new inner, smear some grease along the whole length. That usually does for the service life of a cable. If you have to insert more lube, try a few drops of oil This is usually at the dirty end, not the gear lever end. Oil inside the (STI) gear lever will usually attract dirt.

I usually dissassemble and grease the pulley wheels of a derailleur and apply oil to the pivots.

You can clean dirty cogs with water, detergent, WD40 or solvent. You dont need to apply oil or grease to clean cogs.

If you want to protect exposed metalwork from corrosion, wax is better than oil or grease. Use it on exposed cable rubs, bolt heads but NOT braking surfaces.

t4tomo

Should I fully clean the oil off and reapply fresh new oil and if so how can I get the old oil off?

Yes, get rid of the old carp first - washing up liquid and hot water & a brush is OK, citrus degreaser (from bike shops or search on line) is better.

Once dry apply some new chain lubricant to the chain.

nicklouse

WD40 nowhere near a bike.

Chain lube on a chain and some light lube with PTFE for the cables.

Mr Plum

WD40 is great at degreasing chains, but make sure you wash it off after and lube up the chain with chainoil/a bit of 3in1 etc... Take the chain off to do this properly.

desweller

Apparently the liners on some brands of cables absorb oil and swell up, causing the cable to bind in the housing. Seems like a bit of a design flaw to me, but check the packaging.

stuartm9999

Whilst many cyclists seem to not touch WD40 - I have to say I kept a bike going that I used to commute 3 or 4 times a week on by just spraying "everything that moved" with WD40 every so often.

Also - rarely (if ever) cleaned anything.

Went through 3 chains (one brike the others just stretched a lot), 2 gear cables and jockey wheels - which I thought was OK in 12 years.

However - if you do clean your bike regularly you probably want to use some proper grease etc. as others recomend as the cleaners wash away the oil/lubricants - it's what they're designed to do!

desweller

stuartm9999 wrote:

Whilst many cyclists seem to not touch WD40 - I have to say I kept a bike going that I used to commute 3 or 4 times a week on by just spraying "everything that moved" with WD40 every so often.

Also - rarely (if ever) cleaned anything.

Went through 3 chains (one brike the others just stretched a lot), 2 gear cables and jockey wheels - which I thought was OK in 12 years.

However - if you do clean your bike regularly you probably want to use some proper grease etc. as others recomend as the cleaners wash away the oil/lubricants - it's what they're designed to do!

7-speed or 8-speed by any chance?

That stuff was/is a lot stronger than the modern 9-, 10-speed hardware and could definitely stand a lot more abuse.