What's the best type of lube for shifters?

[SFTifoso]

I had my first fall, luckily it was on some freshly laid dirt, which was sort of good for me, but bad for my bike. My right shifter completely dug itself into the dirt, and now I have to clean it. I was thinking of going with dry/wax lubricant so it doesn't attract much dirt, but what do you recommend? Thanks.

[bikerjohn64]

What brand are they?
I know with campy; they use a white soft grease that looks like lithium.
Have you opened it up yet? I would tend to stick with whatever OEM lube was in there.

[SFTifoso]

They're shimano sora shifters. The stock lube is some sort of white grease, but I want something liquid since I'm gonna have to run it under the tap to get the dirt out. And I can't take the whole thing apart and grease all the little parts. I just removed the covers.

[bikerjohn64]

For cleaning lube or grease use Ronsonol's lighter fluid. Great for cleaning grease/lube and drys quick with no residue. It's also used a lot in the electronic industry for cleaning. Use a pressure blower to blow out the soil from the shifter too.

Just don't smoke while you do the job ;-))

There is a type of lithium grease that comes in an aerosol can with a straw attachment that might suit your need.

[esldude]

A few weeks back when using a chain whip I envisioned a better, simpler, cleaner way to get the job done. What I had in mind was almost exactly the Stein Hyper handle. Glad somebody makes one and glad you posted it here.

[Kerry Irons]

I had my first fall, luckily it was on some freshly laid dirt, which was sort of good for me, but bad for my bike. My right shifter completely dug itself into the dirt, and now I have to clean it. I was thinking of going with dry/wax lubricant so it doesn't attract much dirt, but what do you recommend? Thanks.

The easiest way to clean a Shimano shifter is to inject it with spray WD-40 while working the lever up and down through all the gears. Let the gunk and dirt just drip out of the shifter. You can follow this up with a wet lube like TriFlow and you can push some lightweight fresh grease in the shifter with your finger. The grease will last longer than the wet lube. There are some large flat sliding surfaces in the mechanism and for that I think a dry lube would be a poor choice. The worst choice would be a wax lube because the mechanism cannot tolerate anything solid getting into it and gumming it up. I've not heard of anyone using a dry lube on shifters and people generally don't have significant problems with the grease that is supplied from the factory. When things do gum up you just use the WD-40 flush that is "standard practice" for integrated brake/shift levers.

[Jesse D Smith]

Dumonde Tech liquid grease. You can drip it in exactly where you want it. Hit it with a light blast from an air compressor with a blower head to force it in deeper.

[Sablotny]

I do a "flush" deal like Kerry above, but use silicone lubricant spray. The carrier dissolves various gunks on the ratchet surfaces, which drip out below, then evaporates and leaves very little behind. In my experience, the shifting mechanisms of aging Shimano STI do not like to be stuffed with white lithium grease, or anything else thick or viscous.