Grease the Cables?

[Mental-Miles]

Hi I am just about to build up my new fat bike for a trip in Norway (up to minus 20° C)… so I do not know, if I had to grease the Cable of gearing and braking or not? And which grease is the best?

When preparing the frame: Greasing the Headset (alu) in alu-frame? and what about the BB-Set?

Thanks for your hints/tipps/suggestions!

Cheers

M-M

[Area54]

I used a teflon dry grease for my cables in Alaska, worked fine down to -30C. Phil tenacious oil is another option.

Yep, grease the contact area between bearing and frame in headset, and threads on the bb during assembly.

Pre-test your intended product in the freezer

[JR239]

As a lifetime Minnesotan I've done a lot of winter biking and I would suggest all cables are kept dry.
If you're worried about cables not operating correctly use Teflon coated cables.
Any bearing can use a light weight winter grease

[flambert33]

I would tend to agree with the "keep um dry" mantra.  Most lubricating agent will change viscosity when cold and I would tend to think that this could affect your shifting quality.  Brake are usually not a problem as the forces involved in moving the cable around are much greater.

I would invest in quality full length housing and teflon coated cables.  This set up should provide lasting performance in all temperatures.

The only place where I could imagine grease to have *some* positive effect is if you plan to encounter liquid water that could inflitrate and freeze in the housing.  The grease *could* help in blocking its migration down the housing.  Then again, full length housing will prevent it from getting in in the first place.

For the records, I've been riding my fat bike for 3 canadian winters iand I'm still running the same set of shifting/brake cables and housings dry with no degradation in performance.