What are some good lubes and greases?
 

Hi, i'm planning on doing some bike maintenance soon. I want to know what are some good lubes and greases. I plan on cleaning and re-lubing everything including, the chain, wheel hub bearings, bottom bracket, derailure cogs, brakes, and cassette. Your advice is greatly appreciated. Also, anyone know of a web page on removing and cleaning wheel hub bearings?

TriFlow in the squeeze bottle, not the spray
I live by the stuff. Great as a chain lube, great for lubing cable housings, squirt some in all pivot points, it works wonders.
Household needs too and loosening stuck bolts (just a bit in the threads will do it)


I'm still in search of a good bearing packing grease though, I hope to hear some suggestions
I own some TriFlow synthetic grease but its way too sticky and viscous, doesn't allow good bearing flow. Its water resistance is amazing though

My choices:

For bearings; Phil Grease. For oil; Tri-Flow and I agree, get the squeeze bottle, not the spray. For chain lube; Pro Link.

You will get a large number of opinions on this subject and this thread will probably reach 3 pages in a couple of days. The recommendations often fall into two categories. The first group recommends ultra high-performance exotic lubes forgetting that bicycle service is very mild compared to what these products were designed to do. The second group recommends the cheapest bulk stuff you can get at Wal-Mart as if bike lubes were a huge budget item. Sit back and enjoy the debate.

See www.parktool.com for excellent instructions on bearing and all other aspects of bike maintainers.

Tri-flow: don't use on chain, fine on cables etc. accumulates black grime. Get rock'n'roll lube, goes on dry, stays dry and you never get grime on your chain.

Grease: Phil wood grease - don't pack bearings with this stuff, once you get water intrusion it marks everything it touches, especially the tires with nasty green. Actually don't use this grease period.

Pro link for the chain. Use after each ride. Drop wise method, link by link. Let it sit before the next ride. Wipe off excess before ride. Takes about 5 minutes. You will never have to remove your chain until it has stretched.

Grease is grease. I happen to use Pedros because it comes in a tub that I can fit my dualco grease applicator plunger cannister into.

Kentucky jelly. Use Tri-Flow and Pedros Ice Wax for chains. Standard bearing grease from an auto store is fine for the thicker lube requirements.

For grease, marine bearing grease, because if you can use it for boat trailers, it will stand up to a bike application! As for chain lube--just search, some like wax based, some oil based. You can actually make a good chain lube using 3 pts odorless mineral spirits mixed with 1 pt synthetic oil. And I agree on Tri-flow as an excellent lube for derailleur pivots, etc.

Well, we disagree on this one. I've used Phil for 20+ years and way over 100,00 miles and it doesn't mark anything and doesn't ooze out any more than any other grease in my experience.

As I said, this can be a very contentious subject.