Chombi1 

Didn't the bottles turned from the old green to white around the time Phil died?.....

Trevtassie

Lithium spray grease will do a better job than oil and comes out of the can liquid enough to get into a freewheel.
You can also mix grease with a little solvent like white gas and dribble that into the freewheel. Warm up the freewheel and the solvent evaporates leaving the grease behind.

Trevtassie

That link is for a lifetime supply of 24 cans!

scarlson 

I'll try to sincerely answer your question why. I'd be lying if I said my frugality was about money, but that is the common conception. I guess for me it's just that I already have a lot of this stuff lying around. Plus, I don't have to go out shopping, keep around another set of bottles, or spend the money. That's threefold savings AND I get to learn something about oil, which may benefit me or a friend later. This is my usual approach and it hasn't caused me trouble, but I'm leaning heavily on my training in chemistry and experience repairing all sorts of equipment, from excavation to labs. If at least a few of us are amused by being skeptical and inquisitive about products, and have training and experience to be critical, we can chat about it and keep the technical details in common knowledge. Fending off ignorance and revealing "trade secrets" to the consumer helps keep snake oil salesmen at bay.

Prowler 

++++1 I feel the same way. I'm now possessed of a strong skepticism about "experts" and marketing professionals. I no longer accept that they have our best interests in mind. Some yes. But many not at all. So I'm like scarlson, use what I have, search other markets, question things. Ex: the grease I use for most everything is the green SD Polyurea grease from John Deere. I keep that on hand all the time (4 JD tractors in service plus attachments) and numerous others toys. JD designed it for, among other things, corn harvesters. VERY hard, dirty, high impact, wet service. Large farming, zero failure tolerance applications.

"Good for everything in the place". And it looks just like the Park Tool grease. Suits me.

curbtender

I see that now. Thanks.

TenGrainBread 

Phil posted on their social media in March 2018 that their US bottle supplier suddenly and drastically raised the price on the classic teal color and Phil didn't feel it was worth it. They mentioned that in the 70s their bottles were actually white.

bark_eater 

Do you have a source for 120w transmission gear oil? I couldn't find any thing with google. I did find some 600w oil for your Model T. I'm not sure this stuff has a bike use, but now I know it exists.

600w oil

verktyg 

Showing my age... Gear oil used to be available in 80W, 90W, 120W & 140W (W = Weight which refers to viscosity). The higher the number the thicker the oil.

Looks like gear oil is only available in multigrades now: 75W-90, 80W-90, 90W-120 and so on. The first number before the "W" is the viscosity at room temperature. Additives maintain the same relative viscosity as the the second number at higher temperature.

Looks like 1 quart is the smallest size container you can buy??? More than several lifetimes worth of freewheel oiling. Any of those higher viscosity oils will work.

One suggestion, take a little container to an oil change place and if you ask them nicely, they may give you a little bit of gear oil.

Note: some manual transmissions use ATF - Automatic Transmission Fluid which is about 10W - too thin. Motor oils run from 20W to 50W and multiweight oils can range from 10W-30 for cold climates to 30W-50.

verktyg

bark_eater 

I did a little more poking around, and it looks like SAE 120 is roughly equivalent to ISO 320. This might be worth a try.

Super-Lube-54300-Synthetic-Bottle

squirtdad

so that comes to $5.50 for 4 oz vs $10 for 4 oz of phils and phils is in a handy drip container. IMHO Phil's for the win in practicality, less mess, less storage space and less for your heirs to get rid of

noglider 

I'm pathologically frugal, too, and it has burned me a lot. I had the same thoughts about bike lube, and to be truthful the difference between a bad lube and a good one is not that dramatic. So I set out to find good lubes that are more economical. For a while, I used ATF, and honestly, that was fine. It was slightly messy but not awful. It needed more frequent reapplication than some but less than others. Then I learned that viscous oil is actually good for chains, so I used chainsaw oil. With both of these, I bought some small squeeze bottles or reused bike oil bottles (less than 4 oz [0.11 liters]). Then I came back around, and my favorite chain oil is Chain-L. I'm back to spending a lot more per ounce, but the actual dollar increase is close to zero. If I were running a bike shop, I would probably feel differently, but I'm not.

I did something similar with cell carriers. I had AT&T and thought there had to be a better way. I went through three MVNOs (small providers that use the big companies' networks). I even went with one or two that charged by the minute and by the kilobyte, thinking I would be more careful and lower my bills. I had a lot of headaches. Some were with the setup. And I had to restrict my usage to avoid extra charges, and I ended up paying more. I went to T-Mobile, which is a great company with good rates but the coverage wasn't where I needed it. I finally came back to AT&T. It's certainly not the cheapest, but it's not the expensivest, either, and I get what I need.

bark_eater 

Just out of cussedness I'm going to buy a gallon. That will get me under 50 cents an oz.....

Bianchi84

I wound up trying Bar & Chain oil. About $5 for what seems to be a forever supply. So far it seems to be working fine. I intend to rebuild this Regina FW eventually. The only problem is, since buying it, I can't get Social Distortion's "Ball & Chain" out of my head!

Steel Charlie

I've been using TriFlow since it was called TriFlon and got sued. The only lube I've used on chains, freewheels and cassettes for near 40yrs now. Chains last forever and the ratchet things never wear out.
JMO of course
Charlie

Salamandrine 

When I got my first cell phone, I went with T-Mobile because ... Jan Ullrich... True. I can't be the only one on this forum. ATT doesn't sponsor a pro bike team. T-Mobile has good coverage around here. 15 years ago it was little patchy in some areas.

Personally I hate noisy freewheels and cassettes. While I am a cheapskate too, I really have no problem spending $3 or $4 more for a bottle of oil that will give me peacefully whirring pawls for probably a decade. None of the alternative oils are even close to as viscous as Phil's.

noglider 

@Salamandrine, funny story.

If you ever get the chance, try Chain-L, created and sold by a BF member. I'd like to know what you think. It's been a long time since I used Phil oil, so I can't compare it with Chain-L.

squirtdad

Good choice of music..... now just add a little Blasters, X and Sublime

easyupbug 

I could not agree more. I am on a terror in my shop getting this under control. It is 35' x 46' and I can barely move around in it. Lubes for auto, bicycles, fishing reels, firearms, chainsaws, worm drive saw, synthetic/vegetable/mineral-based oils, hydraulic oils, etc, etc, etc.

verktyg 

The ONLY and THE BEST VERSION!!!!


PLAY VERY LOUD!!!

verktyg

ThermionicScott 

A tangent, sorry: W does *not* stand for "weight", even though it was common to refer to grades of oil that way! It's a measure of the oil's ability to flow at cold temperatures ("W" = "winter".) For instance, a 10W30 oil or 80W90 transmission oil has to be able to flow at -25°C or it doesn't get that "W" number. The higher number has to do with its viscosity at hot temperatures, originally 100°C although a 150°C spec was added a few decades ago.

Bicycling-friendly temperatures are somewhere in the middle of those two ratings, so we needn't worry too much about the exact numbers.

Salamandrine 

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll put that on my list of chain lubes to try. I gather that it's a sticky wet lube? Because of the dry dusty conditions out here in the west, most of the year I have to use a dry or dryish lube.

CliffordK

If you want super viscous, super sticky oil, try Lucas Transmission Treatment.

noglider 

Yes it's wet. I've only lived in humid places, NY, MA, and NJ.

sced

A long time ago I took a community college course in classic car restoration. The instructor was an old pro and he said he would squirt used motor oil into inaccessible rusty spots. He said that used motor oil is sticky and stays in place. I have used it on freewheels and chainsaws after decanting and it seems to work just fine.