What kind of bearings did early bikes have? Early bearing/chain lube?
#1
Full Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 244
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 206 Post(s)
Liked 38 Times
in
27 Posts
What kind of bearings did early bikes have? Early bearing/chain lube?
Anyone know what kind of hub bearings the earliest bikes had? How about early Tour de France bikes?
What was used for lube in the hubs and on the chains when chains became part of bikes?
What was used for lube in the hubs and on the chains when chains became part of bikes?
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: New Rochelle, NY
Posts: 38,712
Bikes: too many bikes from 1967 10s (5x2)Frejus to a Sumitomo Ti/Chorus aluminum 10s (10x2), plus one non-susp mtn bike I use as my commuter
Mentioned: 140 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 5781 Post(s)
Liked 2,578 Times
in
1,429 Posts
Both ball bearings and chain drive predate bicycles. So from the beginning, or at least since the advent of the modern safety bicycle, over a century ago, the basics haven't changed that much, though they've evolved considerably.
Also, from the beginning, ball bearings were greased and chains oiled. like bikes, the lubes have also evolved, but are basically the same.
Also, from the beginning, ball bearings were greased and chains oiled. like bikes, the lubes have also evolved, but are basically the same.
Last edited by FBinNY; 02-11-23 at 06:49 AM.
#3
Senior Member
Lanolin/wax based grease was used for ball bearings and chains as well as plain bearings. I read this many years ago as I set out on a journey to discover a magic chain lube alternative. Never did find it.
Likes For TiHabanero:
#4
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 1,223
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 497 Post(s)
Liked 432 Times
in
332 Posts
"Sperm oil" from the head of the sperm whale was a high grade liquid wax lubricant used on sewing machines and bicycles. Fortunately it was replaced by dinosaur oil. Tallow is an animal derived lubricant that was widely used in stream engines and is still used by plumbers and electricians. Tree hugging vegans can use canola/rapeseed oil, that is the base of a number of modern biodegradable lubricants (but be careful it's not genetically modified).
#5
Happy With My Bikes
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 2,186
Bikes: Hi-Ten bike boomers, a Trek Domane and some projects
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 884 Post(s)
Liked 2,307 Times
in
1,117 Posts
It is too bad that the internet wasn't around back then so we could argue if whale semen or lanolin was better.
__________________
"It is the unknown around the corner that turns my wheels." -- Heinz Stücke
"It is the unknown around the corner that turns my wheels." -- Heinz Stücke
#7
Half way there
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 2,957
Bikes: Many, and the list changes frequently
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 986 Post(s)
Liked 880 Times
in
527 Posts
The first patent for ball bearings in bicycles was issued in 1862. Albert Pope of Columbia Bicycles introduced ball bearings in most of their products as early as 1880. Precision bearing balls; however, were still a few decades in the future. I think it's safe to opine that the bicycle industry played a huge part in bearing technology during the industrial revolution.
Likes For Moe Zhoost:
#8
Live not by lies.
Join Date: Nov 2020
Posts: 1,306
Bikes: BigBox bikes.
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 860 Post(s)
Liked 784 Times
in
582 Posts
"Sperm oil" from the head of the sperm whale was a high grade liquid wax lubricant used on sewing machines and bicycles. Fortunately it was replaced by dinosaur oil. Tallow is an animal derived lubricant that was widely used in stream engines and is still used by plumbers and electricians. Tree hugging vegans can use canola/rapeseed oil, that is the base of a number of modern biodegradable lubricants (but be careful it's not genetically modified).
#9
Really Old Senior Member
#10
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Maryland, USA
Posts: 2,435
Bikes: Drysdale/Gitane/Zeus/Masi/Falcon/Palo Alto/Raleigh/Legnano
Mentioned: 34 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 983 Post(s)
Liked 632 Times
in
403 Posts
A few days ago, I cleaned out the top of the seat tube for post insertion via the old trick of using an automotive brake cylinder hone; I was too lazy to go to the garage for some Mobil 1, so I used extra-light olive oil as it was handy. And the bike wasn't even Italian!
__________________
Larry:1958 Drysdale, 1961 Gitane Gran Sport, 1974 Zeus track, 1988 Masi Gran Corsa, 1974 Falcon, 1980 Palo Alto, 1973 Raleigh Gran Sport, 1974 Legnano. Susan: 1976 Windsor Profesional.
Larry:1958 Drysdale, 1961 Gitane Gran Sport, 1974 Zeus track, 1988 Masi Gran Corsa, 1974 Falcon, 1980 Palo Alto, 1973 Raleigh Gran Sport, 1974 Legnano. Susan: 1976 Windsor Profesional.
Likes For sweeks:
#13
Senior Member
They generally used plain bearings, just like nearly all wheels had through all of history up to that point. "Plain" means that there are no rolling elements such as balls or rollers: as the shaft or wheel spun, it simply rubs against the opposing element.
This wasn't because folks were ignorant: engineers at the time were entirely aware of rolling-element bearings, and had been since ancient times. But rolling-element bearings require that those rolling elements be made in substantial numbers to very precise and consistent size and shape. And this made them very expensive to make until well into the industrial revolution.
Furthermore, rolling-element bearings have to resist their loads on very narrow point (in the case of ball) or line (in the case of roller) areas of contact. This means that the bearings need to have very high strength and hardness, or they need to be very large. Ideally, they should also have at least some corrosion resistance. In the year 2023 where we can buy oodles of nearly-perfectly-made balls of 52100 Chrome Steel for pennies, this might not sound like a big deal, but once again: two hundred years ago, it's going to be adding meaningful cost to the assembly.
Plain bearings are an elegant way to achieve good tolerance to high loads, which works even when your materials and manufacturing aren't totally up to snuff. They big drawback is, unsurprisingly, that they suffer from very high friction, particularly when they're not perfectly clean and well-lubricated.
While the potential for extreme friction under poor lubrication was an annoyance on early bicycles, it was an especially big problem for trains. Trains took much longer than bicycles to transition away from plain bearings due to their extreme loads, but these same extreme loads meant that the worst-case scenarios for plain bearings were extremely bad. The railroad operators needed to be very diligent in maintaining oil-soaked material within the boxes that housed the wheel axles; if a bearing ran dry under high load, it could overheat catastrophically (a "hot box" failure) and potentially cause a deadly derailment. Railroad workers were expected to watch trains as they went by, to keep an eye out for any wheels that were smoking or on fire.
By the beginning of the 20th century, bicycles had largely transitioned to ball bearings for their hubs.
This wasn't because folks were ignorant: engineers at the time were entirely aware of rolling-element bearings, and had been since ancient times. But rolling-element bearings require that those rolling elements be made in substantial numbers to very precise and consistent size and shape. And this made them very expensive to make until well into the industrial revolution.
Furthermore, rolling-element bearings have to resist their loads on very narrow point (in the case of ball) or line (in the case of roller) areas of contact. This means that the bearings need to have very high strength and hardness, or they need to be very large. Ideally, they should also have at least some corrosion resistance. In the year 2023 where we can buy oodles of nearly-perfectly-made balls of 52100 Chrome Steel for pennies, this might not sound like a big deal, but once again: two hundred years ago, it's going to be adding meaningful cost to the assembly.
Plain bearings are an elegant way to achieve good tolerance to high loads, which works even when your materials and manufacturing aren't totally up to snuff. They big drawback is, unsurprisingly, that they suffer from very high friction, particularly when they're not perfectly clean and well-lubricated.
While the potential for extreme friction under poor lubrication was an annoyance on early bicycles, it was an especially big problem for trains. Trains took much longer than bicycles to transition away from plain bearings due to their extreme loads, but these same extreme loads meant that the worst-case scenarios for plain bearings were extremely bad. The railroad operators needed to be very diligent in maintaining oil-soaked material within the boxes that housed the wheel axles; if a bearing ran dry under high load, it could overheat catastrophically (a "hot box" failure) and potentially cause a deadly derailment. Railroad workers were expected to watch trains as they went by, to keep an eye out for any wheels that were smoking or on fire.
How about early Tour de France bikes?
Likes For HTupolev:
#14
Palmer
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Parts Unknown
Posts: 8,625
Bikes: Mike Melton custom, Alex Moulton AM, Dahon Curl
Mentioned: 37 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1667 Post(s)
Liked 1,820 Times
in
1,058 Posts
John Harrison invented the caged roller bearing in the mid-1740 while working on the problem of accurate timekeeping for ocean navigation. Ball bearings were first patented in 1794.
Wikipedia offers: Jules Suriray designed the first radial style ball bearing in 1869 which was fitted to the winning bicycle ridden by James Moore in the world's first bicycle race, Paris-Rouen, in November 1869.
There was a debate in the first decade of Sturmey-Archer's history (1902) as to whether the planet gears should ride on ball bearings or plain bearings. Plain bearings won out, but not before the argument cost William Reilley his job at SA. [Note: I've read claims about efficiency gains if ball bearings are used for the planet gears (I'm looking at you, Rohloff.) If true, single-stage, non-compound three-speed hubs would be over 100% efficient if they switched back to ball bearings!]
Fun fact: 3inOne oil debuted in 1894 as a bicycle chain lubricant, promising to clean, lubricate and rust-proof. You can still buy it; it's one of the oldest cycling products on the market.
Wikipedia offers: Jules Suriray designed the first radial style ball bearing in 1869 which was fitted to the winning bicycle ridden by James Moore in the world's first bicycle race, Paris-Rouen, in November 1869.
There was a debate in the first decade of Sturmey-Archer's history (1902) as to whether the planet gears should ride on ball bearings or plain bearings. Plain bearings won out, but not before the argument cost William Reilley his job at SA. [Note: I've read claims about efficiency gains if ball bearings are used for the planet gears (I'm looking at you, Rohloff.) If true, single-stage, non-compound three-speed hubs would be over 100% efficient if they switched back to ball bearings!]
Fun fact: 3inOne oil debuted in 1894 as a bicycle chain lubricant, promising to clean, lubricate and rust-proof. You can still buy it; it's one of the oldest cycling products on the market.
Likes For tcs:
#15
Mad bike riding scientist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denver, CO
Posts: 27,362
Bikes: Some silver ones, a red one, a black and orange one, and a few titanium ones
Mentioned: 152 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6219 Post(s)
Liked 4,218 Times
in
2,365 Posts
One note on using vegetable oils for lubrication. All of them are some kind of fatty acid and most of them are unsaturated…i.e. have a one to several carbon-carbon double bonds in them. That double bond and the fatty acid nature of the oil makes it reactive when exposed to air. The fatty acid nature also makes them digestible and yummy to all kinds of organisms.
Petroleum derived oils have no fatty acid character nor much unsaturation so they are much more stable when exposed to air. And they have little flavor making them less yummy as well as longer lasting.
__________________
Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
Likes For cyccommute:
#16
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 12,905
Bikes: (2) ti TiCycles, 2007 w/ triple and 2011 fixed, 1979 Peter Mooney, ~1983 Trek 420 now fixed and ~1973 Raleigh Carlton Competition gravel grinder
Mentioned: 129 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4806 Post(s)
Liked 3,928 Times
in
2,553 Posts
I just rear it. Fascinating account of those great animals and their biology. But, man, Melville is in love with his words! No way I'll plow through it again. (Or read any other Melville.)
#17
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 1,223
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 497 Post(s)
Liked 432 Times
in
332 Posts
One note on using vegetable oils for lubrication. All of them are some kind of fatty acid and most of them are unsaturated…i.e. have a one to several carbon-carbon double bonds in them. That double bond and the fatty acid nature of the oil makes it reactive when exposed to air. The fatty acid nature also makes them digestible and yummy to all kinds of organisms.
#18
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 12,905
Bikes: (2) ti TiCycles, 2007 w/ triple and 2011 fixed, 1979 Peter Mooney, ~1983 Trek 420 now fixed and ~1973 Raleigh Carlton Competition gravel grinder
Mentioned: 129 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4806 Post(s)
Liked 3,928 Times
in
2,553 Posts
That “low acid” refers to low erucic acid which is a C22 monosaturated fatty acid. Erucic acid is damaging to the cardiac muscle of animals and imparts a bitter taste to meat of animals fed the oil. **** seed (aka “canola” seed) oil is derived from one of the many cultivars of the Brassicaceae, or mustard, family. It’s kind of amazing how we have varied the lowly mustard plant in to so many different plants.
...
...
Never been much for canola oil. Read "The Omega Diet" 20 years ago at the behest of my GP. The piece that stuck in my brain was the ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6. 1:3 seems to be ideal. Canola oil is 1:3. But if you are overwhelmed with Omega 6 (many staple American foods), you cannot get to 1:3 by consuming 1:3 foods. It takes foods more concentrated on Omega 6; the oily fish, flax seed. Food source that do not contain Omega 6
That 1:3. The author is from Crete. Went to Stanford for grad work in biology. Couldn't believe how bad dorm food was and how much worse he felt than when he ate the simple foods of Crete. So he decided his focus and thesis would be on finding what it was the the world's healthiest people's diet had in common. So, first: the healthiest people. Those of his native island and those of the fishing villages of northern Japan. But their diets had nothing in common! The Cretes - lots of wild or near wild vegetables. (That "goat food".) The goats that also ate those greens. The Japanese - seafood. Lots of it. Lots of fish and marine mammal fat. Almost nothing grown on land. (They basically lived on big rocks. But they did eat a lot of kelp and other seaweed.) Nothing in common until the author noticed while their fat intake was wildly different in both total amount and percentage of diet, they both consumed very high percentages of Omega 3 to their small amount of Omega 6. That 1:3.
I also consume large amounts of olive oil which contains no Omegas at all. Simply because it's good stuff. My body likes it. It's a joy to cook with. My skin likes it. Smells good. Wood likes it. (Knife handles, cutting boards ...)
#19
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 12,905
Bikes: (2) ti TiCycles, 2007 w/ triple and 2011 fixed, 1979 Peter Mooney, ~1983 Trek 420 now fixed and ~1973 Raleigh Carlton Competition gravel grinder
Mentioned: 129 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4806 Post(s)
Liked 3,928 Times
in
2,553 Posts
It's a user issue. If you clean and re-oil regularly, biodegradable lubes are just fine. But if the bike sits 5 or 10 years and you wheel it out, jump on and ride a century - do you still have grease in your bearings?
Olive oil does last a long time. Centuries, even millennia properly stored and maybe years exposed to air. (Probably past best taste but my bike's taste buds aren't so good.) My bikes haven't seen much olive oil but it's been used. I"d use it without thought if I were touring in the third world and that was the only option.
Olive oil does last a long time. Centuries, even millennia properly stored and maybe years exposed to air. (Probably past best taste but my bike's taste buds aren't so good.) My bikes haven't seen much olive oil but it's been used. I"d use it without thought if I were touring in the third world and that was the only option.
#20
Live not by lies.
Join Date: Nov 2020
Posts: 1,306
Bikes: BigBox bikes.
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 860 Post(s)
Liked 784 Times
in
582 Posts
That “low acid” refers to low erucic acid which is a C22 monosaturated fatty acid. Erucic acid is damaging to the cardiac muscle of animals and imparts a bitter taste to meat of animals fed the oil. **** seed (aka “canola” seed) oil is derived from one of the many cultivars of the Brassicaceae, or mustard, family. It’s kind of amazing how we have varied the lowly mustard plant in to so many different plants.
One note on using vegetable oils for lubrication. All of them are some kind of fatty acid and most of them are unsaturated…i.e. have a one to several carbon-carbon double bonds in them. That double bond and the fatty acid nature of the oil makes it reactive when exposed to air. The fatty acid nature also makes them digestible and yummy to all kinds of organisms.
Petroleum derived oils have no fatty acid character nor much unsaturation so they are much more stable when exposed to air. And they have little flavor making them less yummy as well as longer lasting.
One note on using vegetable oils for lubrication. All of them are some kind of fatty acid and most of them are unsaturated…i.e. have a one to several carbon-carbon double bonds in them. That double bond and the fatty acid nature of the oil makes it reactive when exposed to air. The fatty acid nature also makes them digestible and yummy to all kinds of organisms.
Petroleum derived oils have no fatty acid character nor much unsaturation so they are much more stable when exposed to air. And they have little flavor making them less yummy as well as longer lasting.
#22
Live not by lies.
Join Date: Nov 2020
Posts: 1,306
Bikes: BigBox bikes.
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 860 Post(s)
Liked 784 Times
in
582 Posts
Read Oliver Twist as a teenager and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Read a Tale of Two Cities a few years later and only got 3 pages in and ADHDd out and couldn’t concentrate through all the wordiness.
Dostyevski also more wordy than Melville by a long shot.
Who do you think Moby Dick is an allegory of?
Last edited by SkinGriz; 02-17-23 at 01:04 PM.
#23
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posts: 536
Bikes: Vilano Urbana, DownTube FS9, Montaque paratrooper, Nano mini-velo, Motobecane CX, Raleigh 20, MIFA folder, ROG Pony, Iverson Grand Touring folder, Exclusiv German folder
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 168 Post(s)
Liked 191 Times
in
119 Posts
I read it last year, great book. But those words were like somebody did a brake check on the highway. I just starting glossing over them as much as I could.
Likes For mirfi:
#24
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posts: 536
Bikes: Vilano Urbana, DownTube FS9, Montaque paratrooper, Nano mini-velo, Motobecane CX, Raleigh 20, MIFA folder, ROG Pony, Iverson Grand Touring folder, Exclusiv German folder
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 168 Post(s)
Liked 191 Times
in
119 Posts
Dickens was way worse.
Read Oliver Twist as a teenager and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Read a Tale of Two Cities a few years later and only got 3 pages in and ADHDd out and couldn’t concentrate through all the wordiness.
Dostyevski also more wordy than Melville by a long shot.
Who do you think Moby Dick is an allegory of?
Read Oliver Twist as a teenager and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Read a Tale of Two Cities a few years later and only got 3 pages in and ADHDd out and couldn’t concentrate through all the wordiness.
Dostyevski also more wordy than Melville by a long shot.
Who do you think Moby Dick is an allegory of?
Tried to read Tale of Two Cities. Same, same.
Likes For mirfi:
#25
Mad bike riding scientist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denver, CO
Posts: 27,362
Bikes: Some silver ones, a red one, a black and orange one, and a few titanium ones
Mentioned: 152 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6219 Post(s)
Liked 4,218 Times
in
2,365 Posts
Dickens was way worse.
Read Oliver Twist as a teenager and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Read a Tale of Two Cities a few years later and only got 3 pages in and ADHDd out and couldn’t concentrate through all the wordiness.
Dostyevski also more wordy than Melville by a long shot.
Who do you think Moby Dick is an allegory of?
Read Oliver Twist as a teenager and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Read a Tale of Two Cities a few years later and only got 3 pages in and ADHDd out and couldn’t concentrate through all the wordiness.
Dostyevski also more wordy than Melville by a long shot.
Who do you think Moby Dick is an allegory of?
It took me 5 years to slog my way through Moby Dick and I never could figure out how they got the movies they did out of the book. I read The Odyssey and Iliad while on a couple of tours and, again, don’t see how they got the movies they have out of those books either.
I used to do an experiment at work that took roughly 4 hours and I had to record data every 2 minutes (and monitor pressure in the vessel while controlling out flow). I read War and Peace while doing that. It was extremely wordy but is a pretty good story. Sergei Bondarchuk did an adaptation of the book in the 60s that could be the most expensive movie ever made ($9.2 million in 1961 to 1966). It’s a 7 hour monster of a subtitled film and I’ve watched it twice. It’s almost word for word to the novel and contains some of the most spectacular battle scenes ever! Worth every minute.
__________________
Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!