People try every kind of lube to reduce friction between their cables and housing -- if they think of it. Grease, wet lubes, dry lubes, whatever is lying around. The concept is fine; lube should be applied to any metal that moves, just that if the lube is too thick it will be sticky and will increase friction. The right lube will both decrease friction, improve performance, and add life to cables and housing. Rock n' Roll Cablemagic is the only purpose-built cable lube we know of. Used properly, the Cablemagic will increase time between service intervals, saving you time and effort and keeping cables and housing performing well past the time you'd normally replace them. Put some between your thumb and forefinger at the end, slide it on taking care to avoid having the ferrule at the beginning of the housing wipe it off. The excess will be wiped off by the ferrule at the end of the housing. Another method is to drip a few drops into cable housing before inserting cables. One bottle is 2oz. and should do 10-15 bikes. For use with non-coated cables only.