Lubing/greasing dry cartridge bearings

[smead]

Most of my wheels are DA hubs that I routinely disassemble, clean, and regrease to buttery perfection.

But I have a set of ksyriums with bling bling ceramic cartridge bearings. The bearings spin smooth, and spin forever (almost like cup and cone), but they are starting to feel pretty dry.

Can't disassemble and repack, so what do you all do? Just replace? I was thinking of a few drops of lube like phil wood tenacious, but it seems like doing that would pull in fine particles of gunk around the edge of the seals along with the lube into the bearings ... :confused:

[shovelhd]

I'm pretty sure ceramic bearings run dry.

[rando]

Thank you for the laugh with the line about tenacious oil. That would slow things down to an unusable degree. If you can and want to service them ceramic bearings will accept normal bike grease or even better a light oil.

Replace them if they seem to have gotten contaminated or otherwise damaged. Otherwise run them until they do or you feel unsafe riding the wheels.

[Fatty]

They take a grease , silicon based I think.
Finish-Line and Scram sell it in little syringes.

[shovelhd]

Flouro grease?

[Fatty]

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/ceramic-bearings

[Ken Robb]

A good "seal pick" can be one of the very fine steel probes used by a dentist to probe around teeth.

[oldpotatoe]

Most of my wheels are DA hubs that I routinely disassemble, clean, and regrease to buttery perfection.

But I have a set of ksyriums with bling bling ceramic cartridge bearings. The bearings spin smooth, and spin forever (almost like cup and cone), but they are starting to feel pretty dry.

Can't disassemble and repack, so what do you all do? Just replace? I was thinking of a few drops of lube like phil wood tenacious, but it seems like doing that would pull in fine particles of gunk around the edge of the seals along with the lube into the bearings ... :confused:

Pry the seal off with a sharp knife blade, grease in there. Do this will ALL cart bearings..Even tho they have 'seals', they aren't 'sealed'. Oil will just dribble out. Those ceramics are hybrids, ceramic balls(really hard), but the cone and cup are steel..Get some grit in there, and the ceramic balls will kill them right now. Grease is a great 'seal', and protection.

[smead]

Pry the seal off with a sharp knife blade, grease in there. Do this will ALL cart bearings..Even tho they have 'seals', they aren't 'sealed'. Oil will just dribble out. Those ceramics are hybrids, ceramic balls(really hard), but the cone and cup are steel..Get some grit in there, and the ceramic balls will kill them right now. Grease is a great 'seal', and protection.

That makes sense, thank you. It is, however, a little unsettling not being able to completely disassemble and clean to ensure no grit before regreasing. Cup and cone rocks!

[rando]

Nobody ever is going to advise you to use Phil Wood Tenacious Oil on wheel bearings of any kind.

Yes oil dribbles/spins out but a drop or two can work wonders for redistributing grease if the OP feels he needs to mess with them without messing with them. No need to even pull up the seal if you lay the wheel horizontally and spin the bearing. Two drops of oil won't make much of a mess when it evacuates.

Alternately go to town with aerosol degreaser that evaporates and repack them with good grease. With one more step,thin screwdriver under external black seal, you can do this exact thing to external Shimano BB's too.

http://i.imgur.com/gBnulPsm.jpg

[Peter P.]

As a homemade alternative to the seal pick/dental tool, sharpen a spoke or even a paper clip with a file. I've done it and it works!