Bob, you must be referring to the Altons that were built for perhaps a two or three year period around 2006- 2008. These have a small internal transmission with a couple of steel gears and one plastic gear. The transmission is grease filled. As you say, the grease is not very effective in keeping the gears lubed, especially the small plastic gear. It tends to lose its teeth every now and then.
These sped up Altons produced a lot of power at low RPM, so it is unfortunate that the drive did not work out. If your Alton predates the sped up model or was made afterward, then you don't need to lube it. The earlier and later models are direct drive, no transmission to worry about.
These direct drive Altons do not put out as much power at low RPM as the sped up ones do, but I have about 15,000 trouble free miles on one so far.oil
I also have one of the sped up models and converted it to oil last week. I could post details if anyone needs them, although I have not run the unit yet, so my oil bath is unproven