masi61

Call me crazy but I’m tuned into pulley squealing multiple times during my club rides and weekend rides around our local bike path system. I have a Pedro’s micro grease gun and about once a year I remove and clean my Ultegra pulleys then put a tiny, tiny bead of grease on the bushing and through bolt. I quiets it down completely and generally stays quiet even after riding in heavy downpours (a couple of times, but more frequent heavy rain riding seems to necessitate more cleaning/re-greasing).

i guess you could say my awareness has been raised. To me the squealing is distinctive and the fix is not time consuming at all. Some of my riding friends I will tell them about the issue. Generally they will say they were unaware and assumed that the LBS mechanic visited this little task during their winter servicing. I suspect with many people that this servicing is simply overlooked. I’ve heard it on Di2 bikes and Dura Ace too. I want to say that it is less common on Dura Ace RD’s since the pulleys have better bearings. I used to think that bling derailleur pulleys were unnecessary functionally but now I’m beginning to wonder if current Shimano 105, Ultegra, etc all. RD pulleys are in some way underengineered.

What say ye?

Andrew R Stewart 

IMO Shimano's guide pulleys are rather well designed, compared to what was before them at least. I have also suffered with pulley squeak, most often with Campy though, both modern indexed and 1970s NR ders. My solution is more frequent service with marine grade grease. There have been a few times when said squeaks have actually been a dry link. Andy

Kimmo 

DA pulleys are both BB, Ultegra is BB only on the lower. The DA upper has a special BB with lateral float.

The ball bearing pulleys generally don't require maintenance unless they become contaminated, but doing anything about that is a hassle because they're cartridge, easier to just replace the pulleys.

BBB do a reasonable set of BB pulleys in resin (forget metal ones; they're noisy) for like $20, with the upper pulley having thinner teeth instead of lateral float.

PS, you can tell the folks with squealing pulleys that not only are they turning watts into noise, but they're also experiencing severely accelerated wear on the bushings, which will rapidly become sloppy and kill shifting performance.

fietsbob

Others use a bushing wider than the bearing width, for the upper float, sideways,,..

davidad

When I clean my chain I lube it on the bike and wipe off the excess. The chainsaw bar oil seems to do a good job of lubing the pulleys.

Dyskolos

While I did the same periodic maintenance to the Shimano jockey wheels when I used them and had few issues, I've started using Tacx replacement ball bearing wheels and have found them to be excellent.

redlude97

+1 cheap and cartridge bearings. Wish the teeth were a bit taller