twist shifter lube

My twist shifters are hard to turn to the lower gears. I watched some videos and it looks like a simple cleaning and lubrication task. There are several lubricants recommended and I would like to hear everyone's thoughts and recommendations. Here are two of the products from the videos: Jonnisnot Shifter Grease and Finish Line Wet Bike Lubricant. Is a shifter-specific grease really necessary? We have lots of blowing dust here. I will not be riding in the rain and it is very hot here. We are coming into a season of high 90's every day for 4 months.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...&linkId=ae7c0feef60c7d1e0370ef6f457a638e&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0055435KI/ref=nosim/youtube25-20

 

Keep in mind that the friction could be in the cables / cable housing and/or the shifter. Even the derailleur can be a culprit (although not usually in my experience).

 

I should have mentioned that the cables are freshly lubed and it did make a substantial difference. The bike has not been maintained. The chain was dry, the cables were dry and I imagine the grease in the shifter mechanism is hard.

 

The internals of the shifter are plastic, most likely. I wouldn't want to use a lube that is petroleum based or has a solvent carrier for fear of damaging the plastic.

I'd probably use SuperLube for this task. The stuff seems pretty benign.

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https://www.amazon.com/Super-Lube-2...ocphy=1024622&hvtargid=pla-315922229188&psc=1

 

I have food-grade grease I use for my brewing equipment. I should be good to go with that.

 

I found that when the front derailleur is adjusted better the shifter operates easier. I was working to adjust the front derailleur and if I got it out of each it was nearly impossible to shift. Not sure about the physics behind that. Maybe the extreme limit geometry creates more stress. I searched for the Twist shift Max and so far it seems they do not come apart. The cable is changed by moving rubber aside and the cable threads through.

I just saw the Dry Slide. I like that, I had a can of moly spray that left a dry film. Really good stuff.

 

Is the cable terminated correctly? If there is a tab near the anchor bolt, the cable needs to go over the top of the tab. When people mistakenly go under the tab, it takes lots of force to shift, and you may not have enough cable travel get it onto the big ring.

 

I saw on some of the videos about adjusting the derailleur what you are talking about. I don't think that is an issue but I have a link to three pictures in Google Photos. I chose to provide a link so I can leave the pictures full size. https://photos.app.goo.gl/hrM16Cw6Y1tRk7w2A

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I've never seen a front derailleur with the cable routed like that. Not saying it's incorrect. Just strange to me.

It looks like cable routing is covered on page 44: https://si.shimano.com/#/en/DM/GN0001

 

That is indeed the routing for the front derailleur. I have not seen a 'Top Swing' derailleur before, but I have not messed with bikes much since the 70's. I need to do a step-by-step adjustment. This seems like a good procedure to me but I am not experienced.

 

In your description you say that it's hard to shift into the lower gears. The rest of the gears sound like they're fine. If the cables are lubed and running smoothly I'd suspect mechanical issues besides lube in the shifters. I say this because it's only on the extreme part of the range.

Have you checked to make sure that there are no frayed cable strands that have worked their way into the shifter?

Tight bends in the cables could also cause issues like this.

Index shifters wear out or parts break.

If lubing the shifters doesn't do the trick, a systematic approach is always a good way to go. I'd start by taking thecable off. Check that the derailleur moves smoothly and that the spring tension is strong.then run the shifter through its full range up and down a few times. Check the cable ends and ferrules - especially at the shifter.

Hopefully the lube does the trick since it's an easy and cheap fix. I agree that you want to stay away from petroleum-based lubes for plastics. Also, food grade doesn't mean Petroleum free. It just means it meets standards. Mineral oil and Petroleum jelly are both food grade and Petroleum based...and lubricants.

 

SuperLube is great. After buying squeeze tubes of SuperLube for years, this last time I bought a canister of the stuff. I use it on headsets, bottom brackets, hub bearings, anywhere grease is needed. I don't remember ever lubing Grip Shifters. I've gotten away from the Grip Shifters, all my bikes/trikes have bar ends, thumb or trigger shifters.