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Has anyone used either of these?

Lubriplate SYNXTREME HD-2

Red Line CV-2

RobbieTunes

Dixie Molasses, from Dubuque. You never forget your first time....

RoadTire,
For below zero stuff, I'd use what we had on the farm-John Deere stuff. We did most of our maintenance during the WI winters, in a 3-sided machine shed with a Nepco rocket heater blasting away. We never had anything made by John Deere, and never anything less than 15 years old, but we always used JD grease. I have no idea what kind, I was a teen, but it held up below zero, summer 90's, and everything in between. My dad used to say "90% of it is for moisture protection, and 10% is doing the lube, so use a bunch." The elevator for the hay bales was used for 2 weeks of haying, and then sat the rest of the year, outside. The grease had to work, and did.... and the last thing you want, as the designated conscripted labor, was a manure spreader that jammed and broke a gear.

For that kind of weather, and cycling? I moved to NC.

Ankheg

I use a bottle of "Zoom" turbine oil from the hardware store for most everything. Got it for my S-A hubs, but use it for cables and brake pivots and chains too, 'cause I'm lazy. Hey, I used oil for everything on a bike as a kid, why stop now? For hubs and bottom brackets I use marine trailer grease, and for freewheels I use white lithium grease like Orangeology posted earlier; it seems to do better in cold temperatures than Polylube.

I do carry a small bottle of Finish Line PTFE chain lube in my saddle bag, chosen mainly because it was cheap at the LBS and looked unlikely to leak. I'm not sure I've ever actually used it, though. An ounce (or four) of protection, et cetera.

BluesDaddy

I've been using Finish Line Teflon grease, but it oozes out of non-sealed hubs, even at room temp. I think I'm going to go back to Park Polylube.

jowilson

IMO, waterproof grease is kind of redundant. Most greases have natural water-repellant properties.

Lubricants I use:

Greases: Coastal All-Purpose EP Grease. It's gray, so it's hard to tell when it's dirty and needs to be replaced.
High-Temp Lubrimatic Disc/Drum Brake Wheel Bearing Grease

Oils: Finish Line Wax Lube
Finish Line Dry Teflon
75W/90 gear oil

For oils, I prefer Dry Teflon over the other two for chains, as I live in the driest hellhole in the US--Arizona. I'd love to use the gear oil all the time if it weren't so dusty here.

noglider 

I don't care to pay a premium for these things, since I own too many bikes, and I also work on other people's bikes from time to time. I learned about ATF here, and I like it a lot. But lately, I'm filling my squeeze bottles with chainsaw oil, because it's more viscous. I have also used Chain-L, and it's good.

I like marine grease, but I also like Park grease, and Park is OK with me because it isn't very expensive.

Paramount1973 

Peak Synthetic Marine grease, bought a tub of it at Pep Boys. Oil is Triflow or Mobil 1 auto oil.

RobbieTunes

I've always wondered if that pink Butch hair cream would work. Made all the flat-tops work when I was a kid.

A friend of mine uses WD40 for chain lube, and yes, he uses it after every single ride.
His chains look like new, and are quiet, at least for one ride. After that, clickety.

jimmuller 

I had a small tub of Rampar grease, yellowish brown stuff, very stringy. After 25 years it was still the same consistency, but I used it all up. Now I've been using Phil Wood, the green stuff. I've tried lots of non-bike-targeted stuff on the chain, ATF which worked okay, but I recently tried hydraulic jack oil. How would one know if the chain lube is good or not? It certainly loosened up whatever tightness the chain had from a year and half commuting.

JJScaliger

I use the unimaginative combo of triflow and Park's grease in a shop tub. I've used other stuff in the past, but I think iab is right, it doesn't really matter.

Saguaro

Park Tools Polylube 1000 for packing bearing sets, Tri-Flow for chains, brake and derailleur pivot points. Most of my main bearing sets are sealed now so not an issue.

RoadTire 

Well, if it was good enough for Robbie's Dad, on the farm, that's good enough for me. What did we have here, 2 or 3 separate folks using John Deer lubes?

RoadTire 

Off topic, I know, but that's brutal. I had to do some car maintenance outside in winter, or in a semi-heated garage, and that's just hard. It's one of the reasons I don't bother working on cars anymore. I want nice, warm, clean and never on my back fighting with some big stuck POS. Ugh.

nesteel 

Valvoline moly-reinforced automotive grease. Figure if it's good enough for auto wheel bearings, a bike application won't be stessful on it. Also, use it on my barrel nut's on the AR rifles, so if the heat from that won't liquify it, the summer heat on a long ride sure wouldn't either. General purpose medium weight oil for lubricating pivot points and such, and regular 20 or 30 weight motor oil for the chain. It's all readily available in my garage, so that's a bonus.

Saguaro

You're always welcome to join us in sunny Arizona!

RoadTire 

Thank you, that was very kind. I am seriously thinking of moving to somewhere I can bike year round without icing my glasses.

Saguaro

PM me, I'll give you the low down on all things Arizona.

jowilson

I'll give you some low down as well

Bicycle Addict

Wow lots of replies and I was expecting only a few, lots of information, I guess I have 3 questions

1) Some say they prefer synthetic over lithium, any particular reason for this?

2) what viscosity rating should I go fro in oil for cable and chain?

3)Is ATF better than straight oil?

Thank you so much for all the replies

jimmuller 

I had been led to believe it had some cleansing properties. Don't know for sure. Don't even know how good a job it did as a lubricant. I do know that soaking the chain in ATF cleaned it up, at least on the outside.

rootboy 

ATF contains a whole lot of chemical and other additives. Up to you if you want to use it. Some additives may benefit your chain.
I don't know. Considering what it was designed to be used in, I think it is over-kill.

Edit: but the ATF mixed with oil combo sounds intriguing.

oddjob2

I don't like lithium grease in tubes because I see separation in old tubes of it.
I don't recommend chain saw oil because it is gummy as it gets old.

I mostly use red or blue bearing grease, Valvoline or Kendall. Aerosol lubes are a mixed bag, until I clear out my inventories. Tri-Flow drip is very light, but is expensive for the number of bikes I do. Has anyone tried gun oil?

I will try these Liquid Wrench products, a penetrant for rusted fasteners and the Chain Lube spray. All three items, $16.50 with tax at Advance Auto Parts.

mechanicmatt

1)Lithium has known to be a little caustic and can give your hands rashes, lots of people use it fine and it is a long time proven grease. I think there are better greases now a days.

2)I am not a big fan of chainsaw or motor oil or atf oil for chains, I think it is overkill. My opinion though. When I was a kid, my dad and I lubed all the chains on our fleet of bikes and such with motor oil and they dripped forever and remained messy. It stayed lubed forever though, for what it's worth. If you need a thicker lube than just Triflow, I add a light touch of Finish Line Wet or Phil's Tenacious Oil after first cleaning the chain. Again, only my opinion.

3)See Above, but we used to use ATF oil in the machine shop on mills and lathes to lube/clean the equipment, it worked effectively for that.

____________________________________________________________________

I forgot to mention I like Superlube PTFE wet and dry for cleaning chains and what not, don't know why it works so well but it does. Dirt and grime just fall off cassettes and cranks, it's pretty cool. I tried it as a replacement for the expensive Triflow but it is not as good for general lubing as Triflow is, it just doesn't seem to last at all.

Which begs the question, any long time Triflow users found as good as cheaper alternative out there?

rootboy 

I'm re-thinking thick chain lubes here. As much as I like Chain-L, and used to use Phil Tenacious Oil back when… the last time I brought my bike in after re-lubing with the rather viscous oil, my drive train,... chain, rings and cogs, had sand stuck to them. An environmental hazard on this peninsula, which is made out of sand. It's death on valuable components. Maybe I'll switch back to lightweight oil and apply more often.

whiteside

Someone gave me an old bottle of chain lube a while back and I'm curious if anyone else has ever heard of it. Called Daemon Semen, it's reddish and smells sulfurous... I've never been too picky about oils, and I some times grab this stuff because its name and ridiculous logo crack me up.