Out of the 50 posts on this thread, you have 31 one of them. On a thread you started. Do you ever actually ride your bike?

I suppose everyone has an approximate ceiling on how much they want to spend on grease.

I used to like saving a few bucks, but now it is less important to me -- I don't mind spending twenty dollars or so on a fourteen ounce tube of excellent, high-end synthetic grease. I can get a 14oz tube of Lucas Xtra Heavy Duty Grease for about $3.92, which is an excellent grease too; but perhaps the Red Line CV-2 or the Swissmade Motorex 2000 is a little bit better -- perhaps, perhaps not. We don't know for sure, at least at this point, for these applications.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=ACW8M2QXR07XT

But I see no reason to spend more than that. In fact, since the Lucas grease passes requirements for NLGI CG=LB and is made with a polyurea base, I'm not sure it's worth even stepping up from there (assuming it is an actual step up, in practice). Maybe, for me, it's worth going up to the $15-20 level. Some of those greases might be just a bit better. Maybe, maybe not.

Not sure the Park Tool HPG-1 synthetic grease is worth the extra. Maybe. I spoke with Park Tools tech support, and it is a superior lubricant compared with their standard (PPL Polylube 1000) grease.

https://www.amazon.com/Park-Tool-HPG...s=park++grease

But at $12.55 for a four ounce tube, is it worth it?

$12.55/4oz = 50.20/lb, or about $43.93 for 14oz, which is 2-3 times the cost of some of the other high-performance synthetic greases. And over 11 times the cost of the Lucas Xtra Heavy Duty polyurea grease. The Lucas grease is an excellent and fine choice for these applications, possibly even as good as (or even better than) some of the more expensive options - more expensive is often assumed to be better, but often isn't.

All of them about grease. I think he was traumatized as a child when he found that tube of K-Y in his parents' nightstand.

Some of the qualities that make a real difference, for me are:

(1) Does the grease harden over time more quickly or less quickly?

(2) Does it leave more hardened residue or less hardened residue, after drying and thickening over time? (Polyurea-based and synthetic greases are much better than lithium-base and calcium sulfonate-base greases, and probably also aluminum-base greases, in this area.)

(3) Does it extend the life of bearings and other components, compared to other greases?

(4) How long does the grease last -- how long does it do its job well?

(5) Is it water resistant (both to washout and to absorption)?

(6) Does it provide a high level of corrosion protection?

(7) For bikes kept indoors, is it low odor?


There are some others too. Greases that are less toxic - both in terms of personal exposure, and in terms of ecotoxicity (including manufacture and disposal) - are preferable.

Super Lube seems like great stuff in many ways. It's non-toxic and even food-safe (for incidental exposure), and it gets many rave reviews. The thixotropic thinning during use is a potential issue though, at least in some applications.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I use this....

http://www.sturdybuiltonline.com/ass...etub-sbo-1.jpg

Marine greases seem like an excellent choice.

I want to find some that are polyurea based.

He's trying to set the record for number of times responding to ones own post.

There was the Orvillecopter


(The builder-artist's favorite pet cat was hit by a car, his name was Orville.)

There is another factor that is rarely discussed. It is discussed here,

The best bicycle bearing grease

Lithium complex grease (lithium grease EP) – lithium grease built up to withstand extreme pressures. More resistant to washing with water and has a greater temperature range than ordinary lithium grease. However, the drawback is that it is a bit “too slippery.” Literally. It is easier to drip from the bearings and it can provide too little friction, so that the balls within the cups do not have enough resistance to spin around their axis, but they can slide along the walls of the cup. Therefore, uneven wear of balls occurs, so it turns out that the superior grease does worse in practice. A good example how the best solution is often not the maximum, but the optimal one.

Molybdenum disulfide grease – excellent for very high loads at low speeds. Forks bearings (shafts), which only go up and down, are the ideal candidate for this grease. In bicycle bearings, the addition of molybdenum disulphide does not bring any advantage. It can be too thick, or too slippery, in any case more expensive than ordinary lithium grease, without apparent benefit.

(Reading this Bikegremlin.com entry, along with the comments below it, it seems that the writer does not have an extensive background in this field, unlike some of the chemical engineers writing elsewhere. And some of his points may be mistaken. Still, he raises some interesting issues that are rarely covered, and some of them may have some validity. It may be that some lubricants are too slippery for some applications, including bike wheel bearings. Or it may not be. Further information and evidence might make it clearer.)

A good example how the best solution is often not the maximum, but the optimal one.

Also, A good example how the best solution is often not the most expensive, high-spec, or exotic, but the optimal one.

From an etymological standpoint this is true. From a chemical standpoint, it is a polymer chain of urea molecules linked through alkyl groups via the nitrogen in the urea. It's not just many solid particles from urine mixed together. It's an elastomer...which means stretchy...that is used as a copolymer with polyurethane in Lycra.

As others have said, however, there's nothing really special about the Lucas product...at least not as far as bicycles are concerned.

yep, NOT "the Prince of Darkness" Lucas.... that Lucas was for M/C's... there's nothing quite like losing your headlight at 70 mph.... at night.... on a twisty backroad... with a cliff on one side... and NO guardrail..... YIKES! Been there... experienced that.... thank god the brakes weren't Lucas!

Just about any modern grease hits all these points. While "axle grease" from 20 or 30 years ago might have hardened over time, that is (mostly) a thing of the past. I regularly see bikes from the 1980s at my local co-op with grape jelly where the grease used to be but bikes from the 1990s seldom suffer from that problem.

As to extending life of bearings, it's a matter of how you define "extending life". Any grease is better than none, of course. But I highly doubt that using product A vs product B is going to have a significant effect...or even measurable effect... on the life of a bearing in a lightly loaded vehicle like a bicycle.

In other words, it probably doesn't matter what you use.


While worrying about the environment is a worthy goal, the amount of grease that a bicycle uses is so little that even a highly toxic material would used in such extremely small quantities as to be negligible compared to other forms of transportation. And, if you are going to go so far as to worry about "ecotoxicity" at every level from manufacture to disposal, no grease... or even modern manufactured item...is completely nontoxic. Your preferred grease, for example, contains petroleum distillates which are anything but "nontoxic" to make. There are a lot of steps in the manufacture of petroleum distillates that are not just toxic but highly toxic.

As for disposal, your preferred grease contains fluorinated compounds which are nontoxic as long as they are kept below about 200°C. Above the temperature, the material decomposes into various fluorinated monomeric compounds that are very toxic. Don't burn it.

Additionally, making fluorinated compounds isn't a benign process either. The materials use for its manufacture are highly toxic.

Bottom line, however, is that it's not something that we bicyclists should be terribly concerned about. We use so little of any resource that we shouldn't feel bad about using a little bit of grease.

OK, enough is enough. Moderators, it's time (actually past time) to close this thread.

Different people have different attention spans. There are still some interesting points that haven't been covered.

Some are satisfied with a very basic level of understanding in relation to grease. Others like to take it a bit deeper or further.

A few probe into the mysteries of life unfathomably.

Unfathomably.

That Lucas was also for almost every British car as well...

:beer: (warm, of course...)

Another premium synthetic,

nuclear grease, August 19, 2015

By
S. Brown

Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Super Lube 71150 High Temperature E.P. Grease, 14.1 oz Cartridge , White (Misc.)

This is the real deal folks......we use this at the Nuclear Plant to grease mission critical bearings and universal joints......none better...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=ATVPDKIKX0DER......

Woah, I to, think grease is way over-thought by the bike crowd but I'm a hypocrite and guilty of perpetuating the grease discourse also!

I have my favorites but suffice to say a bike is a relatively low demand use-case. +1 for Phil's and I use it but use Motorex most of the time now.

Heck, even a softened Tootsie Roll would probably work in a pinch!

My opinion alone......

Being compatible with other grease is of little benefit on a bike. One is generally not injecting grease into a joint/bearing, but rather it is cleaned out completely when serviced.

What makes it interesting is the disparity between those who believe it doesn't matter what one uses, and those who believe what one uses is critical.

Winnow out the blissful ignorance of the former, the gullibility of the latter, and its not too hard to make reasonable choices for what best matches the application, while avoiding those that are entirely unsuitable.

My preferences are John Deere corn head grease, and Lubrimatic marine grease for most applications. Phil Wood waterproof and tenacious, White Lightning, and Boeshield are reserved for a few special applications.

Overthinking until spring? :rolleyes:

A 35 year old tub of Boat trailer wheel bearing grease Used when I want to have it work and not re do it often.

loose bearing balls stick in it.

Phil in the tube is fine when Tidy ness without using my finger matters ..

LBS uses tubs of park grease because they get it shipped with other stuff they need
its about the same viscosity as Phil , blue rather than green ..

Probably distilled from Methane ("Natural") Gas.






:innocent:

That's a tremendous amount of content to wait only seven weeks for. [Translation: Keep dragging around a ****ty thread like this one and then the wheels fall off.]

I've been riding between the cornfields of Indiana for more than forty years and had never heard of Corn Head Grease. Until visiting this overly informative thread. :twitchy:

This thread has reached a low point even for BF.