Tricks from the elders: Oiling cables

Every now and then you run into some pieces of ancient cleverness. Nowadays if you want to oil your clutch cable for example, you grab a can of teflon cable lube and oil it. But how did our grandparents do it?

They used a funnel and some rubber hose (which I didn't have, hence the tape) unhooked the cable and filled the funnel with oil and then moved the cable back and forth a bit. As I found out, it doesn't matter much, whether you use fresh or old oil (unless it is all gooey and mucky and comes out of an old diesel - you know the sort!) In this example I used up some old 10W50 fully synthetic, which made the clutch slip in every bike I tried it... 

The cable's uber-smooth now. And yes, I really have to get some proper rubber hose and zip ties.