thehammerdog

I read guys discussion on lubing pedals (speed play)
i have an old pair new to me work well so what is the deal with lubing and where?
thanks

fietsbob

you have the ones with the grease fitting? own a needle type grease gun?

looked for the speedplay website yet?

Andrew R Stewart 

The two aspects of Speedplay (and most brands) pedals that might need lube are the axle/bearings and the clasping design.

Speedplay pedal bodies don't have a lot of empty/spare volume in them so there's not much extra grease from which to feed the bearings with oil. So I pump fresh grease into the axle/bearing a couple of times a year. On my X series the end cap either has a screw which plugs a grease port or the cap can be replaced with a ported one. I wipe off grease bleed out after the next couple of rides.

For their road pedals Speedplay has the cleat containing the moving parts for the clasp to the pedal. Hence using a dry, non grime attracting, lube is suggested. IIRC White Lightening was lube has been suggested for years, applied to the cleats. On my own X series I don't bother with any cleat lube but I do replace the cleats after a couple thousand miles on average. Andy

sch

My first pair of Frogs, cerca 2002, did not have a screw fitting for lube but the next 3 pair do. It was easy to drill a 1/16 or maybe 3/32"
hole in the plastic at the end of the pedal axle and fit a self tapping #2 or possibly #4 screw ~3/16" long in the hole and use it for lube.
It works fine. For a long time I used an injector designed to go on the end of a Phil Grease tube (like a small toothpaste tube) but after
awhile it got hard to get the grease to go up into the injector so I found a 'needle' tip for my big grease gun which uses an 11" cartridge
and that is what I use now.

Phil grease injector I used is on green Phil grease tube here: Phil Wood & Co.
"Needle tip" I now use is a short version of this: https://www.amazon.com/Carbyne-Grease-Needle-Nozzle-Adapter/dp/B01MR25WZ5/ref=sr_1_14?keywords=grease+gun+needle+tip&qid=1561859010&s=gateway&sr=8-14
which any auto parts store should have for under $5

Pix of frog with screw visible on end of pedal: https://speedplay.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.frog It has been a long time since I used the
X series but a pix shows some have the screw and some had a plastic cap over the opening used to lube: https://speedplay.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.xspecs

NoWhammies

@sch very helpful post! I tried to lube Mrs. NoWhammies speedplay pedals the other week. I tried to use the grease gun (below) and the but none of the Phil Wood grease went in the pedal. Evey time I tried to 'push' the grease in to the pedal, it just kept getting squished right back out the grease port.
No matter how hard I pushed on the grease port, the grease kept spitting back out. According to the videos I've seen online, the old grease is supposed to squish out the other end.
I can't tell if my grease gun is the problem or if I am.

So now I'm stumped on what to do next.
Any suggestions?

Andrew R Stewart 

Injection grease, via hand operated gun, can sometimes be frustration. But after all you want any bearing seal tp not let the outside in, too bad the seal can't tell the difference between water and grease. I find spinning the axle during injection sometimes helps. Sometimes I have just pulled the axle and done the full job too. Andy

fietsbob

the way: outside end bearing rarely gets contaminated, but greasing from that end fills the internal space,

and you over fill it until that grease pushes the contaminated grease out of the innermost end.

generally..



....

NoWhammies

I gave up in frustration. Seemed like more of the clean Phil's grease was coming back at me via the injection port than going in to the pedal. I don't want to buy another grease gun to get the job done, but I'm not sure what else to do.

sch

My experience is that it works just like the videos show. There is always a little leakage around the needle tip, but most flows
through the pedal and out around the axle. Try once more but lay the bike down so you can really put some pressure on the
injector and have someone rotate the pedal as you do. If that fails, then your next step would be Andrew's disassembly, lube
and reassembly. Injector port may work after that. It will also give you a view of the bearings.

thehammerdog

I just did review the web page and now need to buy a grease gun and dry lube
😎

HillRider

You did remove the plug screws from the pedals right? I had several pairs of Frog and never had any difficulty injecting Phil Grease using the Duelco-type grease gun you pictured.

BCDrums

I had one of these in the junk drawer. It's a large syringe used to give children liquid medicines orally:

I filled it up with Superlube synthetic grease and used it to inject into a frog. A Speedplay Frog! Har. Worked fine. You can get on at CVS, Walgreens, etc. for cheap.

NoWhammies

Yes, I did. Which is why I was so surprised about having such a hard time getting the grease in the pedals.

Good tip on laying the bike down. I'll give that a shot.
I'm a bit worried about taking apart the pedal though. Seems like it might be above my pay grade.