Replacing the Grease in the Bike

I have been working so hard to get the bike and food and gear in the crate, plus trying to keep up with the store, and get everything else done that I haven't kept up on the all the blog stuff. These pictures are from a couple of days ago when I re-greased my bike. I removed all the grease from the shifters when I built the bike, but I didn't put new grease in until I was ready to box up the bike.

In Antarctica there is basically no dirt, at least not on my route. So I don't need to worry about dirt getting stuck in the grease during the expedition. However on my training rides here in Utah I did not want to get dirt in the grease, so I waited until I was getting the bike ready for the crate before using my cold weather compatible grease.

First a picture of the shifter all nice and clean an free of grease.

There is a cover and then an outer ring. Here I have taken both off to be ready to add the grease.

I greased up the shifters making sure that anywhere there is a seam in the plastic it would be sealed by grease. I don't want blowing ice to get in there

Here is the cover with grease to seal the edges.

Putting it back together a little grease is showing where the parts fit together.

Cleaned up.

I also greased the pivot points on the front derailleur, 

and greased the pivot points on the rear derailleur.

XT Shadow Plus derailleur

To make it so the bearings turn easily in the cold I need to replace the grease in the bearings. This is repeated for each bearing in the hubs, bottom bracket, and headset.

Bearing with all the grease cleaned out.

And with the new grease packed in.

And the seal replaced. Ready to go!

Not shown in these pictures is the greasing of the chain. First I clean off all the grease that came with the chain, then heat up the grease for Antarctica, and soak the chain in the grease to make sure it gets between the links. Again I am not going to be dealing with dirt so I can leave the chain greasy and keep ice out of the links.