Wharf Rat

I see these on some older hubs. Looks like some sort of clip right in the middle. Can someone tell me what they are?
Thanks

T-Mar

The clips cover a small hole that was used to add oil. Grease is basically a soap-like carrier with oil added. The pre-synthetic greases would loose the oil and harden over time. You would periodically add oil through the port under the clip to "refreshen" the grease. Also, there were some cases where cyclists preferred to use oil over grease, such as track racers and time trialists. Way back in the 1890s, during the first bicycle boom, one of the hot topics of debate was whether it was better to oil or grease hubs,

JohnDThompson 

I've always found it curious that Campagnolo's Record road hubs had an oil port in the hub shell, but the Record track hubs did not. They both had a small port in the dustcap, so I guess that's how you were expected to add oil to the track hubs.

RobbieTunes

It’s where you add speed.
EVERYONE knows that....right?

T-Mar

As an afterthought, I guess they should be referred to more generically as a lubrication ports, as some cyclists did use them to inject grease.

T-Mar

I always liked the two piece plastic dust caps that were introduced on New Dura-Ace (7400 series). The lubrication ports could be opened and closed, and they are so much easier to remove and install than metal dust caps.

SurferRosa

They're called oil clips, but they are just for aesthetics, not for oiling anymore. They look ... right. Campy hubs without them, like the nuovo tipo, look naked, like something is missing.

madpogue 

Given the content of many a thread here, the wheels of debate are among the best-lubricated and longest-running.....

DiabloScott

They were reportedly so good, that some people were known to draw fake oil hole covers on plain hubs.

Wharf Rat

I would’ve never guessed that’s what they were for. Thanks for solving that mystery for me.

canklecat

If you spot those on camera lenses, they're for refreshing the bokeh.

madpogue 

^^^^ Important. Nothing worse than the smell of stale bokeh....

Who knew that, back when we used what are now "C&V" 35mm cameras (before they were C or V), that one day there would be a high-falutin' word for "the stuff that's intentionally out of focus"?

(Gets me thinking - if I mount my 45-year-old 10.5cm F2.5 full manual AI-hacked lens on my D750, can I call the out-of-focus background "bokeh"?)

Chombi1 

Yup!, Speed Juice Ports!

robertorolfo

Maybe also, "Intimidation Ports", because if you see someone (or better yet, their mechanic) putting some oil in on the starting line of a race, you know that guy means business.

Bandera

"Back when" there was a new guy in the club who fancied himself an Expert on the TT and endlessly slagged on and on about how we simply had no clue on how to set-up for the event.
Considering that this was in the day before dedicated funny bikes existed and the total prep for a TT was:

1) Bury stem
B) Fit straight-block on race wheels
III) Attach mechanical stopwatch holder to bars (don't forget to wind the watch)
4) Have at it

I was informed that the only way to be competitive was to replace bearing grease with Oil, which he dutifully pumped into the oil port on his Campag hubs before the start.
At "3-2-1 Go!" he slipped his rear wheel on the held start having never tested it's QR security in a big gear launch and promptly fell over in a heap to DNF while leaking oil onto the road having gone nowhere. An impressive demonstration of paying rapt attention to the less than marginal while totally ignoring the completely Essential.

I still laugh about that many years on, he is forever known as "Slippery_Sam" to us.

-Bandera

canklecat

Did Sigma include bokeh calibration with their USB Dock?

I blame/thank Mike Johnston for creating the bokeh craze in the US. As a writer/editor for Photo Techniques in the '90s, Mike wrote about the Japanese concept of boke, changing the spelling to bokeh to help Americans with the approximate pronunciation. For years, even to most Japanese folks, boke just referred to one's dotty, forgetful or foolish uncle ("fuzzy" headed, like fuzzy out of focus areas). Johnston basically conveyed the concept of bokeh as a description of the subjective *quality* of the out of focus areas, so there was good, bad and middling bokeh.

Why not? My 105/2.5 AI Nikkor is one of the best lenses I've ever owned, sharp even wide open with generally good bokeh. But most Nikkors show what the Japanese called nisen-bokeh, with rather harsh edges, often doubled or tripled, a result of over-correction in pursuit of optimal sharpness, contrast, etc. The best Nikkor bokeh I've seen is with my old pre-AI 180/2.8 ED. The 85/2 AI-S is very good too. Most of my Nikkors show that nisen-bokeh. Older Canon FD and pre-FD lenses often had more pleasant bokeh. But if you ask Olympus fans, Zuikos were pre-injected at the factory with the best bokeh, then the bokeh injection port was sealed so only Maitani could reach it again.

Dave Mayer

Holes are for grease injection. Slide the cover to the side and pump the hub with grease until the old contaminated stuff shoots out both sides. Hubs are now good as overhauled.

Anticipating the concerns of fussy and pedantic C&V individuals here, I will respond in advance that yes, the extra grease in the hub shell will add 0.2 Watts of extra resistance, until the surplus oozes out over time.

And yes, purging with grease will not clean out 100% of the old. The horror. Maybe only 95% clean. Repeat the purge and now only 5% of 5% remains. Clean enough now?

The old Campagnolo Record freewheel hubs were the best wet weather hubs ever made. No seals. But since it only takes a few minutes to clean out the internals of these by grease injection, they could last forever. These are the hubs I used on my rain bike.

rootboy 

I obviously need to inject some speed juice into my bokeh ports.
If only I could find the right nozzle.

Kabuki12

What type of attachment would one use for use on a standard grease gun to use this method? Sounds a lot easier than taking the cones apart. Joe

top506

You want bokeh? Try the single coated pre-war Zeiss Sonnars, notably
the 80/2.

Top

tiger1964 

Perhaps someone (VO?) should come out with a retrofit kit. Or at least a decal.

T-Mar

Circa 1989, SunTour licensed Wilderness trail Bikes' Grease Guard technology which used a Zerk-like fitting to inject grease into hubs, bottom brackets, pedals and headsets. It was used on their top of the line ATB group, XC Pro. Unlike the traditional hub lubrication ports, the grease Guard hubs had two ports, directly adjacent to the bearing races.

momoman

About 7 years ago when I got back into riding I only had my vintage Trek 760 with campy hubs hanging in my garage. It had been hanging there for 20 yrs or so. When I asked one of my old biking buddies if I could borrow his cone wrenches he told me to do exactly what you said instead. He lent me his grease gun with Phil Wood grease and told me to squirt away. I had never thought of that......

Dave Mayer

Grease injection is a major timesaver, plus avoids the risk of mis-adjustments on bearing setup.

I never disassemble pedals anymore for cleaning. Fussy setup and a million little ball bearings. If they are set up reasonably, I just blast new grease in from the outside of the pedal (usually a hole in the dustcap). The old stuff gets pushed out towards the inside for cleanup.

If the pedals do not have an injection port, then I remove the dustcap and drill one.