These are wonderful threads, and I'm glad this one was brought back.

I ride in the rain a lot, and still use cup and cone Ultregra hubs on my rain bike, at least until those cups are gone or I can't get the cones any more. I judge how frequently to repack the hubs very simply: I hold a wheel with the axle in my fingers and spin it. If it spins rough or there's drag, I repack it. In the winter, I'll repack as often as once/month.

I'm another user of the blue boat trailer wheel bearing grease. I've found that the best thing I can do to make a hub last longer is to fill the bearing cavity completely with grease, so that it squeezes out in a major way when I assemble it. Even so, sometimes when I strip the hub, I'll see liquid water in there. But with the boat trailer stuff, no damage. The only damage I've had was from getting grit in there and not repacking immediately, so that I had to replace a cone. I'm always amazed when I repack a new hub and see how little grease the factory put in, and how much room was left for water.

I use new balls every time I repack - they're cheap.