dijos

I'm about to reassemble a bike, including a headset (threaded). the bearings are dirty, not filthy, with brownish grease. I want to regrease them, how, and what kind of grease? I happen to have a huge tube of automotive grease (clearish, light brown). will this work ok? I don't have access to Phil grease, so any sensible substitute would be appreciated. Thanks.

LtSPD2000

the grease you have will work fine

bellweatherman

Automotive grease is good stuff. A bunch of people use marine bearing grease. You can get it at the Home Depot or Lowes. It's made for wet environments and specifically for bearings, so it is good stuff, but I think what you have is as good.

clancy98

yep, auto is what I use. Seems to work so far!

Niles H.

I went through this one time, and decided to go to a large auto supply store and buy a tube of the highest-rated waterproof (marine trailer or other) grease they had. Some met specifications that others did not.

That one tube will last me a lifetime; it didn't cost much, the grease is waterproof, and it's been working great.

***
(It's still a good idea to avoid getting water inside your bearings though.)

mandrake

I was told at Performance that automobile grease is designed to handle temperatures that bicycle wheels never achieve, so they recommended I use bicycle specific grease on my hubs. Did they do a sell job on me, or did they have a valid point?

Bill Kapaun

Well, since there are different kinds of auto grease you can't generalize them. There's wheel bearing & chassis types for example. Do you think a high temp grease fails to lubricate at low temps?
That said, auto grease is excellent for bearings on a bike!

bellweatherman

Yeah, but most bicycle greases are actually other large manufacturer's greases just rebranded. Just because the sticker says Campy, doesn't mean that Campy has a grease manufacturing facility.

JunkYardBike

It is thicker and will cause more drag, but most mortal humans can't tell the difference. If you are a competitive racer, you would want to use a much lighter grease, or even oil. I use the marine bearing grease mentioned above, because I'm afraid of going too fast.

Let's go to a quote by who else but Sheldon Brown:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/hubs.html

raverson

rjacob

How about lithium grease? Personally I have a tub of automotive type grease.

oilman_15106

All grease is hydophobic. What makes marine grease any better than regular automotive grease? If you can pedal fast enough to make water and grease into an emulsion, which is about the only way to mix the two, let me know.

twobikes

If your automotive grease is too thick or heavy, stir in a little motor oil until you get the consistency you want. At the worst, you might notice more drag in very cold weather with automotive grease.

Cadfael

I once spent £5 on a tube of lithium grease for my bike... it was the red stuff. It worked wonderfully... but when looking closer at the tube it, and at the small print... it was produced for Halfords by Sovereign Lubricants. Now the firm I work for uses Sovereign Lubricants for all their oils and greases... and we did indeed have the very same grease in a 5 gallon tub. I file the invoices from different suppliers (I am employed by my company as a security guard, but I also do some admin work in the night) and looked the Soveriegn invoices up on the Daybook Database... the tubs my company buy cost £20 a time... the tube held 75ml.

Lesson learned... I now just take a tupperware sealable cup to work when I need grease.

I can just picture some spotty nerd at Halfords... taking a huge pot of grease... injecting so much into a tube, or a small tub... and calling it Cycle Specific Grease.... *kerching* £5 please mister!

Bill Kapaun

Hydrophobic? What does Rabies have to do with this?

Sluggo

If you get water in a bearing, it can mix into an emulsion. Those little balls rolling through it mix it up quite effectively... Phil grease turns a lovely shade of pastel green when mixed with water, but it does not protect bearing surfaces very well under those conditions...

seeker333

It WILL mix into an emulsion, and an acidic one at that.

Those steel bearings churning around in there turn your hub into a little (very weak) generator / battery - the water becomes acidic, and a few days later your bearings make a crunchy sound when you roll out the door from the little pits that have started eroding into the cup, cone and bearings. Plus that nice iron oxide brown color in the oil-grease emulsion.

I think shimano mtb hubs are a little screwed up. On the non-drive side you have the decent-sealing, but energy-robbing black rubber seal. On the drive side you've got a steel "dust cap" which stops contaminants larger than ~2mm in diameter - but doesn't stop water at all.

https://bike.shimano.com/media/techdo...9830608936.pdf

I've had a couple XT rear hubs get nearly ruined as the result of long rides in rainstorms - rusted /seized on the drive side, while the non drive side is basically ok.

Svr

Most upper end shimano rear hubs do have a rubber cheveron type seal on the drive side -- it's #8 on the above pdf.

erader

did you see any automotive grease on their shelves ?

ed rader

DannoXYZ 

The difference is that the marine bearing grease has much better tackiness than the normal auto greases. To test, put a drop of marine grease on the tip of your forefinger and squeeze it with your thumb. Then separate your fingers and watch what happens. Repeat with normal auto grease.

What happens in the bearings is that the grease is pushed aside by the rolling bearing. When you repack wheel-bearings (bikes & auto), a lot of times you'll find a dry track where the bearings roll and plenty of grease on the sides. The marine bearing grease on the other hand, will stick better to the bearings and get pulled back onto track.

jcm

I use whatever I happen to have on hand. Right now, it's marine trailer bearing grease - the blue stuff. Before that it was some kind of old tar-brown axle grease. It looked like molasses. I've used white lithium grese and it works fine, too. None of it ever allowed any rust at all.

mike

[QUOTE=Cadfael]

Lesson learned... I now just take a tupperware sealable cup to work when I need grease.
/QUOTE]

If you get caught stealing a cup of grease at work and you lose your job over it, that will be the most expensive grease you ever bought.

I don't know about England, but in the States, the good-old days of being able to just take a bit of what you need from your employer are long gone (sadly) and good folks lose their jobs for mooching just a bit of the silliest things.

_beaver_

Wow! I better return the 2 5 gal. buckets of acetone i found in the shop.
I stills thinking we was still in the good-old days.

cup

I use Bel-Ray waterproof grease on my bikes. It's designed for dirt bikes but worked great on my mountain bike so I use it on all my bikes now.

mrcranky

Fear of water. (Among other symptons, unquenchable thirst but might also have, ironically, a fear of liquids)