With what little I know of lubrication technology. It is important to 
maintain a film of lubricant between all moving parts. I would assume 
"electrically conductive materials" would have to have some metallic 
particles unless the relying on electrons moving in a liquid sort of 
technology (probably will hear something from the Guru's on this area 
:)  ). In the case of the electrons, wouldn't that be similar to a 
plating process, which I don't think would be desirable. I'm assuming 
that your bike has a friction off the side of the tire generator, using 
the frame as one of the conductors. Need to get a "Hummer" (that's a 
1960's English bicycle brand) front wheel hub generator. It was the 
front wheel hub with a concentric generator stator/rotor. It had 2 wires 
to your lights. Worked very well. I drove my Raleigh Gran Prix (1960, 
made in England, would be compared for the age to a top of the line Trek 
today) in all kinds of Michigan weather with no problems. What are you 
using for grease. Get a cartridge (auto grease gun size) of good quality 
lithium auto/truck chassis, instead of those little tubes that are 
questionable quality. I use shell's

On 7/22/2010 4:17 AM, Matt Rhys-Roberts wrote:
> On 20/07/2010 13:55, Carl Denk wrote:
>    
>> I understand that the electrical arcing in the bearings (ball and
>> roller) creates a surface defect and possibly local metallurgical
>> defects that then some time later cause bearing failure. I can't recall
>> the application where I became familiar with this phenomenon, but might
>> have been aircraft.
>>
>>      
> (This may be happening on my ageing motorbike, i.e. where the chassis
> return current is fed through the steering headrace bearings, causing
> some headlamp flicker when I brake hard!)
>
> Would electrically conductive lubricants help the wind turbine problem?
> Is it initiated by lightning strike, or reliance on bearings for current
> conduction?
>
> Matt
>    
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