AnkleWork

And you know that because you've tested them all, right?

buddiiee 

I have. Except for Shimano's grease, I've put EVERYthing known to man in a set of hubs or bottom bracket and still to date have never replicated the smoothness from Campy's ORIGINAL grease that my brother used to bring home liberally from Continental Bike shop where he worked (I worked at another shop that didn't have that much high end stuff). And no, the NB52 that Kluber puts out is not identical to the original Campy grease. It's close but NB52's pure white and my Campy grease was tan. I just got a tube of this Kluber stuff for an old Campy hub repack that's coming up here. I'll tell ya if this stuff makes em spin like a set of brand new Record hubs or not.

As a side note some of the things I've used to pack hubs and bottom brackets were the thick green/blue "waterproof" (bullcrap, NO grease I have ever used was truly waterproof. I work on cars a lot and experiment with grease on cars as well) marine grease, the cheap light green garbage Autozone "waterproof green grease", Honda's silicone grease, Toyotas silicone grease, Sil-Glyde, white lithium, Phil Grease, Phil oil, Lubiplate's stuff, Mobil 1 oil, Redline's synthetic 75/90, etc etc. With all that said, nothing spun as long as light weight machine oil in the hubs, lol. Granted the lubrication was probably insufficient, but for short trips who knows. I tried that as that was the rumor racers used to talk about in the 70's and early 80's. As a kid I used to hang out with the race crowd and over heard this stuff. Who knows if it ever reduced enough drag over time but I tried it lol. As far as overall smoothness for non sealed hubs, the OEM Campy grease was the smoothest I've ever felt in my life.

(I do understand that overall smoothness isn't even a function of lubrication at all, as it is the relationship of the bearings and races; in terms of total bearing roundness, smoothness of the races, either side's race being absolutely parallel to each other, cones being completely round, cone holes being bored and threaded completely concentric etc etc. but speaking in lubrication properties only is where I'm expressing an opinion.)

Edit June 2020. I packed some assemblies in that supposed OEM for campy, "Kluber NB52" and it is NOWHERE NEAR what Campy grease was when I worked in bike shops. This stuff not only separates like its it's job, but it's whiter in color and thinner than the Campy grease I used in the 80's. When I wiped out all the old grease on some of these old almost nos campy hubs I had here, and replaced it with the Kluber, they got louder, and I could "feel" it more in my hands when I spun them. When I packed these things with original campy back in the day I could spin them (cranks and hubs) and they felt like a set of broken in phil wood sealed bearings, which is to say totally silent and smooth to the point where you could close your eyes while they were spinning and you would feel NOTHING on your hands. That is NOT the same results I get when I repacked these bearings with the Kluber. Nooooooowhere close. I am not biased torwards Campy, as I'll use anything that works really well and I'm here to tell you this Kluber is not the same as the super smooth, tan campy grease I was raised on.

krecik

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Bike Gremlin

Water and, primarily, dirt intrusion is the nemesis of most bicycle bearings. So in those terms, a grease being long lasting doesn't make much of a difference past a year, or two (depending on riding conditions and mileage).
Based on my experience, general auto store lithium complex grease is more than good enough in terms of water washout resistance, durability (not drying out) and lubricating performance.

Another thing to consider with polyurea is that it's not very compatible with many other grease types. Which means that if one doesn't wipe off the old grease thoroughly (yes, one should, but I prefer having less things to go wrong if all else is practically equal), the two will mix and not work very well (becoming more "liquid", or less resistant to water washout, or something third - depending on the particular incompatible combination). That's another reason I prefer easy to source, relatively cheap lithium based greases (calcium based ones are similar, but as of last 20 years, I'd say lithium is a "no brainer" for general use - including bike bearings).

In a lot more detail:
https://bike.bikegremlin.com/1985/bi...ase-explained/

Mad Honk 

Racing Dan,
I was on a flight from Indy to Austin a few years ago, in the first week of June. And the passenger list was mostly the engineers from the oil industry, returning to Houston from the Indy 500. What an interesting flight it was for me. Those guys were all over the latest lubricants used in the transmissions of the 9,000 RPM engines. No break down after five hundred miles of tough wear, and it came out looking clean as it went in. Found out through the flight that it was actually synthetic oil and not conventional derived stuff. I switched after that, to the same products from Ashland Oils in KY and have had great success in my personal vehicles. Each getting over 250 K before any signs of wear. I suspect that the same is going to be true going forward with grease formulas.
This is all for conventional bearings. The new ceramic bearings are a dog of a different color. They need no lubrication, and will work in water, or dry conditions. Only problem is space age materials cost a lot. $3 per bearing, in a pedal set that takes 50 bearing drive up the cost considerably. Maybe there will someday be a thread called "to grease or not to grease". Smiles, MH

reconnaissance

About 30 years ago at my college bike shop job we were all using Phil grease on our mountain bikes because it was waterproof. one day the Shop owner appeared with a Phil freewheel grease injector tool. So I did a product test on my Trek 850 and used it to grease my nearly new suntour freewheel.

it had the immediate effect of quieting the pawls in the freewheel ratcheting mechanism. I was worried I might have gone too far and waited for the day the pawls would skip on a power climb, but it never happened.

These days I Use whatever I have around to grease things up. Lately it’s a red bearing grease made by Lucasoil.

Mike

HillRider

It's taken two more pages of postings to conclude, once again, that there are a LOT of greases that work fine in bicycle bearings.

shelbyfv

Not to mention almost 9 months....

mpetry912 

An entertaining read ! I have all kinds of greases. In headsets I use a Wurth black moly grease that comes in a tube, it's used in constant velocity joints. Really good stuff. For all other bike applications I use either Phil or this stuff (below) which is Teflon bearing - easy to find and not expensive. I've had very good results with it.

Yes, I do have a little tube of the Shimano freehub bearing grease - supposed to be the best ever. Don't know if I have the test to determine if that is true !

Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA USA

davidad

As most things bicycle superstition and tradition beats science.

3alarmer 

ramzilla

https://www.amazon.com/Lucas-Oil-Oun...911154&sr=8-16

trailangel

Keep the thread alive!
I bought a small container of Campy grease...... and when I got around to using it ..... had dried and caked up.
Terrible..... the worst.

Phils is like a light marine grease... I like it.
Have used the Super Lube Teflon shown in picture above... nothing wrong with it.

davidad

NLGI 2. Enough said.

rydabent

With the sometime extreme pressures put on a head set, the best grease to use is the heaviest stickiest grease you can find.

Racing Dan

Im betting its just old school white lithium grease and Hype. Greases used to do exactly like you said, but have improved A LOT over the years. Its been a long time since I last opened a bearing with completely dried out grease.

Trakhak

Could be, but the smell of Campy grease was different from that of any other grease I've encountered. I dimly remember being told back in the '70s that the ingredients included whale oil.

Mad Honk 

In the 1970's I was a certified Chevrolet mechanic, and whale oil was used as an additive for non-slip differentials to quieten chatter and help the differential clutches work better. When whaling was declared illegal, the industry scrambled to find a replacement, and currently they use a synthetic additive to stop the chatter. It works but not like the old school whale oil. Smiles, MH

easyupbug 

As a retired heavy industry maintenance manager I have played with grease professionally and as a result used many products on many bikes over the years. Bike G is dead on in my dry climates experience, Southern AZ most of the year and Portland, OR and Bighorn Mountains only in the summer. Especially if one considers cost benefit and does practice reasonable preventative maintenance.

Racing Dan

Obviously, if you clean and replace grease at regular intervals (say, one year), you may not notice much/any difference, but there is no data to support the idea that all greases are equally good because "contamination and washout is the real issue" as suggested above. Im sure contamination and water is the main offenders, but in not at all convinced all greases perform equally well on the long haul and especially in the presence of water and dirt.

Similarly motor oil are subjected to many different contaminations that degrade the oil, how ever some are much less affected and degraded than other and modern oil "last" many more miles than older formulations.

dmark 

Supertech Marine/Boat Trailer Grease less than $4 at Walmart because I like blue grease.

DiegoFrogs

I'd take whatever came in the most appropriate volume and appropriate/convenient package these days. I'm not going to move a huge tub of grease with a loose fitting lid across the Atlantic or the continental USA with my other stuff just because I got a good deal.

Hell, 250 grams in a plastic tube with a long, narrow nozzle would be great.

easyupbug 

Racing Dan, you are totally correct. I worked in underground mines with drifts in the 3 -4,000 foot below the surface where we dewater constantly and blasted everyday at mid shift, maximum water and where rock fragmentation is our business, and in smelters with constant blistering temperatures. We spent a lot of money on preventative maintenance products. Companies like Lubrication Engineers make greases for the hard rock mining industry that seal much better to prevent the entry of contaminants and are extremely tacky to help with water washout, but $$$. Nothing close to that severity exists in cycling even with the daily commute my daughters do in Portland, OR or I see on our desert roads. I have long ago given up logging milage so am out on a limb but empirically my $$$ tubs of grease I have offer little if any advantage in my or my daughters cycling or to the typical cyclist in anything near a routine PM program. That said, yes a 4 oz. tube of Park grease at 12 times the price per oz of the above shown Walmart special in an abused and neglected hub I expect is far superior.

Last ride 76 

In the seventies we used to call it blueberry grease, saying it smelled like wild blueberries...