Hub shiners

Well it started with the Rohloff. Did you know these things slowly bleed mineral oil? I didn't. But they do, and it means dirt sticks to them and the hub looks mucky as hell. It stopped bleeding a while ago, but still the hub is filthy.

So I'd like to clean the gunk off, but then I'm lazy... so I figure if I put some hub shiners on there, they'd do the job whilst I ride. I don't need them on there all the time, just the times I want to clean them.

And as I'm doing the rear, why not clean the front. The front seems to get more real filth on it than the rear, and as the front is polished stainless steel it would come up a treat.

The bike is a beaut, so I'm not really inclined to put on the modern toilet brush cleaner thingy... it's too ugly. And the traditional solution seems to work well, a piece of leather tied or fixed around the hub. Looks smart, cleans the hub, remove it when clean, put it back on when filthy.

But it's got to work, so it needs to be large enough to spin freely (to buff the surface), yet narrow enough to move freely (to reach all places) and unfinished (so clean and soak up grime) and not cause damage or create scratches (no metal fixings that would hit anything).

So just a traditional hub shiner fits the bill perfectly. And as I said, if I owned an old belt and a craft knife I'd knock a pair out myself.