Comments on: I Wouldn’t Buy That: Bike Specific Grease

By: Randall Shimizu

Randall Shimizu — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 08:51:12 +0000

Most of the bicycle specific lubricants are a scam. There are other greases available that are as good or better.

I used to work in a bike shop and I recommend against using a white lithium grease. The problem is that lithium based grease is made from soap. So therefore it breaks down when it is exposed to moisture.

I like a moly based grease. I prefer Slick50 grease which is fortified with teflon. The big problem is finding grease that is the right weight and Slick50 is good. Slick50 is a moly based grease with teflon. Now I don’t recommend using Slick50 oil additive for your car however. Dupont specifically recommends against teflon lubricants for a car engine. In they don’t sell teflon to Slick50. Slick50 has to purchase teflon in the grey market.

Occasionally you will run into people using marine grease. The problem is that marine grease is way to heavy for bikes. Mobile 1 also makes a synthetic grease, but I have not tried it.

Bicycle specific spray lubes is also another waste of money in general. You want a lubricant that is lightweight yet that won’t attract dirt. Weldtite makes a very dry teflon spray but it is expensive. Loctite makes a similar teflon product.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:44:14 +0000

After doing much research, I finally settled on using Mobil-1 Synthetic grease I got at the local Pep-Boys for around $8 for one-pound can (tub). It is red so it doesn’t look as clean as the over-priced bicycle grease. It is tacky while at the same time, not thick. I have been using it on everything and it works great. Because it is synthetic, it does not have the regular petroleum-based additives that can attack rubber / plastic parts and no waxes. Auto-specific bearing grease is formulated for high-temperature, high-load applications. Bicycle applications do not need this kind of viscosity. I have not recently heard of any 3000-lb bicycles doing 75mph.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:38:53 +0000

have tried a few things — regular ol’ axle grease, marine synthetic, and the Park stuff in a big squeeze tube.

nothing has convinced me to use anything other than slick50 One grease; i have 1 3/4 tubs of it left, and since i rarely re-pack anymore, it should last me about oh, the rest of my life! it’s tooooo sweeeeeet! good in all temps, easy to use, and durable. found out about it on the job, trying to salvage the crap bearings in a wheel off a $50 bike ( i build for a major retailer, can u say ’smiley’?) instead of the gravelly feel of the normal mainland-china hubs, the slick50 made them approach acceptability. so i’m sold — grabbed the last tubs they sold in my area on clearance, you can only get it in the long tubes now…

By: eedavis

eedavis — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:13:54 +0000

Does anyone know of an inexpensive-but-good grease that’s packaged in a tube that will fit the little grease pumps we use? Pedro’s fits, for one…

By: JoelGuelph

JoelGuelph — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:34:59 +0000

@Noah: I figured someone likely was.

@Quinn: I imagine sand can be a pretty nasty thing to get in your bearing surfaces. I think I’d be tempted to at least pull them apart once in a while and make there is no sand in there. And there isn’t anything inside a hub except small parts, which are pretty much entirely protected by grease and seals. If your hubs are blowing up, you probably need to be overhauling them more often. Even to pay a shop $15-30 once a year would be worthwhile compared to replacing wheels every couple of years.

By: Quinn

Quinn — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:57:16 +0000

I was half joking, I know you can and should overhaul your hubs every now and then, but 1. I live in the desert, 2. usually something usually brakes inside them usually making it worth replacing the whole thing, not just the small parts, Before the grease goes bad.

By: Noah

Noah — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:48:41 +0000

FYI, I was already working on that very thing

By: JoelGuelph

JoelGuelph — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:37:38 +0000

“overhauling hubs? you can/actually do that?”

I think I am as surprised to learn that you & Kerbouchaud (and by extension, lots of other people) don’t know anything about hub overhauls as you are to learn that people actually overhaul their hubs.

In general, Shimano and low-end hubs have serviceable bearings that should be overhauled a minimum of every 2 years, and more frequently if riding in wet/muddy conditions, or if you want to ensure the hubs last for more than a few years. Again, in general, most higher end hubs have cartridge bearings which are not intended to be overhauled.

I think I will put together a how-to on hub overhauls and put it up. Watch this space!

By: Quinn

Quinn — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:59:53 +0000

IM with Kerbouchaud, other than wiping my chain and spraying a little Finish Line/GT85, I havent seen a need for stuff like axle grease, if I need to pop in a seatpost, lube cables, put on grips, FL/GT85…..
overhauling hubs? you can/actually do that?

By: Nic

Nic — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:03:07 +0000

Just make sure not to mix grease types. Namely what they use for thickeners. My company switched suppliers for our bearings and the new one used Polyurea grease instead of Lithium based. These greases are very incompatible and we had to replace a lot of bearings in the field. Supposedly some combinations of grease are so incompatible that even tiny amounts of the wrong kind can cause damage. From what I have heard a lot of the auto industry is starting to switch to Polyurea baised.