MyRedTrek

Brand new bike with 0 miles on it, do you see any potential problem with adding PPL-1 lube in with the factory grease?

Bmach

No idea but why? I’m curious.

veganbikes

Why? There is literally no need to do that on a brand new bike. The only reason I might consider swapping grease is if I was a sponsored rider and had a grease company I was sponsored by but I would have team mechanics and it would all be paid for but it would still be silly. Unless there is actually an issue with the factory grease I would always leave it alone till I need to do it. The PPL-1 is pretty generic grease nothing special anyway so not like there might be a slight benefit and especially not adding more grease to something probably already properly greased.

HillRider

As a general rule I wouldn't mix grease types. Many are compatible but some aren't. If the factory grease seems adequate leave it alone until it's time for a complete overhaul or clean the factory grease out completely and regrease with the lube of your choice.

MyRedTrek

It's an essentially new Walmart bike I happen to have had sitting in my garage that I'm giving to someone and I'm not inclined to just trust the Walmart setup on it, so I'm going through it and putting in what I know to be decent grease and making sure there's enough of it.

I take it you have no knowledge of any issue with combining grease then?

veganbikes

You are overthinking this bike don't put much time or money into it, they certainly didn't but someone did purchasing it at some point/ If there is grease in the hubs I wouldn't bother use that grease for other things if there isn't grease go for it have fun but I doubt there is no grease in there and even if it is cheap grease it is fine enough for the quality of that bike.

MyRedTrek

Let me worry about how much effort I put into it - so you have no awareness of any problem with combining lubes, great.

Russ Roth

just go for it. Plenty of times I give bikes like that a quick once over and think nothing of putting a couple extra squirts of grease in there, usually there isn't enough to begin with as you suspect. Sometimes it does necessitate cleaning the bearings if you're going through the process, spin the axle, if it doesn't sound gritty then undo the cones enough to get a squirter in there, wipe the cones and edge of the seal, add squirts and move on. Obviously, if it sounds gritty pull it apart, clean it and regrease or you really will just be wasting time. Personally I think every bike deserves an equal amount of care regardless of source or cost, it isn't about the value of the bike but understanding its about making it as good as it can be for the person who will use it, ignore the naysayers and have fun rehabbing it.

cyccommute 

There shouldn’t be any issue with combining greases. They are all essentially the same and will mix readily.

As for HelMart bikes, the amount of grease used in them is about the equivalent of what you could rub off a teenager’s nose. Seems like a lot but it really isn’t.

Other prophylactic measures I would take would be to replace the bottom bracket or at least the bearings. The bearings and cups are made of slagnesium which has all the strength of wet toilet paper. I’ve seen a number of bottom brackets in the co-op where the cups pull apart when you try to remove them. Makes it seem like the cups are cross threaded but they really aren’t. Bearings often come out as hemispheres

Hubs and headsets don’t seem to be much of a problem in my experience but they have more of a sheen of grease than actual grease in them.

MyRedTrek

I haven't gotten to the bracket yet, I've been dealing with the hubs. There was brown grease in there though the amount seemed a bit sparse to me. I lubed up the hubs and the freewheel. The dishing on the rear wheel was off, spoke tension was all over the place - stuff like this is exactly why I'm going through it, amazing they sell bikes in that kind of adjustment. However I will say the rims do true up pretty nicely.

It's been sitting for around three years but I don't think the spoke tension would change that much with -0- stress being put on it.

easyupbug 

Park PPL-1 is a polyurea grease which while a very good cycling grease is actually one of the worst when it comes to mixing. Mixed with a typical lithium based grease it can result in hardening or softening and other issues not critical to most cycling. Mixing would not be done in professional industrial maintenance w/o knowing the original grease and insuring the compatibility.

HillRider

It didn't change over time. It was just as poor three years ago as it is now. When an entire bike sells for less than $100 at retail, how much careful assembly can you expect?

cyccommute 

I have no love for bikes coming from HelMart. They are poorly made and not good candidates for refurbishment unless you want to add more money to them than they cost in the first place.

But, since you have it, do the best you can. What you are seeing is fairly commom.

cyccommute 

Industry has much more severe demands than bicycling. Higher temperatures, heavier loads, longer duty cycles, etc. For a bicycle, it won’t matter for a couple of reasons. First is the light duty demands that bicycles have. The second one is that there is so little grease in HelMart bikes that any added grease will dilute the old grease to ppb (parts per billion) levels.

easyupbug 

I am not familiar with today's big box store bikes but would not doubt what you say for a second; as a Schwinn rider in the '50s I recall trying to help my buddy keep his JC Higgins on the road.

70sSanO

I would add the grease. It is also a nice gesture to want the bike to function as well as possible. Good for you.

John

curbtender

I'm surprised you found any grease in there, lol. I put together a bunch for a Christmas giveaway and found that just a dab goes on any of the bearings. In that case I'd say go for it.

MyRedTrek

Originally I was going to use it as a spare for when my Giant was being worked on but I discovered it was too small for me and it was too late to return it. Worked out well because I ended up getting a Trek Verve2 as a second bike and like it better than the Giant so now the Giant is the spare.

veganbikes

Ok you have fun with that but I don't really see a need to mix lubes. Can you do it, sure but it is a lot of effort for not a huge reward on that front.

MyRedTrek

$100?? I'll have you know this is a $119 model - I went for the fancy ride!

SurferRosa

I don't worry about grease mixing issues. I bought some nos Miche cartridge bearing hubs on eBay. They're beautiful, but I thought they needed some grease. After all, they're a couple decades-old. So I added what I had on hand which was Park. Zero issues.

MyRedTrek

The pedals felt really stiff and crunchy when turned by hand. When I got the bottom bracket apart there was just a hint of some kind of lube like someone wiped a greasy finger once around the bearings and then slapped it together - too tight. Some bits also fell out which I assume to be shavings from machining the internal threads and there was grit sticking to the little bit of grease that was there. Unbelievable. When I cleaned the bearings, cup and cone and twisted the components holding them together dry before re-lubing they felt way smoother than they did previously.

I also found the black paint on the handlebars, stem and front fork had gotten dull on the top for some reason. Keep in mind this bike has been sitting in a garage the whole time, it's not like it's had sunlight beating down on it. The area under the grips is still bright and shiny. When I cleaned and prepped it to hit it with Rustoleum I found the factory paint is also pretty thin, I broke through to bare metal very quickly in certain spots with a moderate application of 400 wet/dry to rough up the surface.

I sure am glad I committed to give the bike a going over. What I'm seeing is that it's not so much that the bike components are terrible but the assembly of them which is also vitally important is really slipshod.

Basically if you get a Walbike you need to look at it as a bunch of parts that it's your responsibility to finish. Of course I doubt many people who get these bikes for kids or themselves are going to have the tools to do all this or even be aware of the assembly issues. Obviously the bikes could last a lot longer if they were just put together right.

I mean c'mon, attaching the pedals at a 90 degree angle from each other??

Okay they didn't really do that.

smd4

Really? Unbelievable??

Actually, completely believable. And expected.

Sorry. There used to be a time when respectable bike shops wouldn't even touch such a POS. I agree with a lot of the others here. Why would you even have spent the money on this, even as a "spare?" And you bought it without knowing if it was your size? And you had it long enough--knowing it wasn't your size--to be out of the return period?? Something is fishy here.

I was 18 when I got into bikes, and thought about what I could do to "improve" my cherished Sears Huffy 10-speed. Took me about 5 minutes to realize it would be a waste of my time, and I started to research what constituted a good bike. And I loved that Huffy.

Hey, it's your bike, and you can keep putting as much lipstick on it as you can, if that's what you enjoy. But please, if you have any humanity, please don't foist this POS on someone else.

MyRedTrek

Fishy? Lol. You think some conspiracy is afoot?

It seemed okay when I first sat on it in the store, but it wasn't until I finally got around to attempting to test ride it that the issues became apparent.

Hey my Giant Cypress DX which is the correct size for me seems "off" to me now in comparison to my Trek - I like the geometry on the Trek better.

But please, if you have any humanity

Dramatic much?




It wouldn't be "expected" to me since I've never taken a deep-dive into working on a Walmart Bike before. I haven't done a hardness test on the bearings or cup/cone or looked at the grain under a microscope etc. but the components seem mostly okay. The spokes and cables are made of stainless, the bearings seem identical to my Trek and Giant. The frame seems as solidly built. It's steel so it's heavier for the size but I would also expect it to be strong. They're going to be riding around the local area not randonneuring. If they don't beat the hell out of it I imagine they could get many miles out of it now that the issues I've mentioned are being addressed. My one question mark are the twist shifters which are a bit chintzy but they work. I'm lubing them with silicone grease, they might be fine for a long time. If they eventually break they can be replaced with better ones.

70sSanO

So I assume you took your cherished and loved Sears bike and cut it up as to not foist it upon the rest of humanity.

I had a Sears Free Spirit and reached the same conclusion that you did. I didn’t cherish and love it, although I did ride it to the ‘84 Olympic Road Race. I sold it at a garage sale and have no idea what happened to it.

There have been reports that even a Walmart bike will give some years of service if properly maintained.

I mean it’s not like the OP is a gamer and wasting hours staring at a screen.

John