The only reference to oil I can find in the Schlumpf manual is:
“please remember, that the hub has to be lubricated once or twice a year with some bicycle oil or our special grease”
No details how much oil to use. That seems like some key information that’s missing from the manual.
I would never have thought to use sewing machine oil or transmission oil.
With the manual’s suggestion of “bicycle oil”, I’d just buy a small dropper bottle of Finish Line or Pedro’s bicycle chain lube at my LBS.
Any reason not to use these products? Is something better? Why?
Steve,
Here’s a thread that discusses Schlumpf lubrication. I especially like the bacon grease part.
I’m still having great results with the gear oil.
Geoff
Yeah, I had trouble finding it, too. My first couple of searches for terms like “Schlumpf maintenance” and “Schlumpf lubrication” came back negative. Eventually I did a search for “mimosa” and struck gold. Figures.
The first thing I searched for was Schlumpf oil, and I didn’t see that thread.
Now I search for Schlumpf oil and it’s right there. Hmmm.
I guess I must have missed it too.
(Though it isn’t particularly informative. Bacon fat! )
When you are doing the advanced search you have to specify the time frame you are searching in. The default is the previous 6 months, so unless you specify “any date” it will limit your search to the previous 6 months. I don’t know what default the regular search at the upper right of the screen uses. That’s probably what is messing us up.
The gear oil I use is only slightly more viscous than regular motor oil of the 10W/30 variety. I figured that my Schlumpf has gears in it, this ought to work. And lo, the gears were well lubricated. Prior to that I used 10W/30. Prior to that I used the 5 cc of green lubricant that came with the hub.
I really don’t think there’s a whole lot to know about lubricating Schlumpfs. Use a high quality (as in not bacon fat) oil. Keep those gears bathed in oil. Hard to go wrong.