Shortening is the worst kind of industrial hydrogenated lipids. It will deposit in your body, including your belly. It will also very efficiently clog your arteries.

I guess you noticed that there was an outcry about Mc Donalds using hydrogenated fats in their food. Well, Mc Donalds has now obviated to that problem, but the food industry is dragging their heels, because they know people are way too ingorant to check for this ingredient when they buy their foodstuff.

Yeah but they could not give you a new hub/warranty it. You really think its worth hiring a lawyer at $$$/hr to get a $300 hub replaced when you could have bought their $15 grease?

^^^
Ummmm, yes!
They hope everyone thinks this way and soon you will have no consumer rights, that took so long to get.
Besides, such violations are blatant if it's a legitimate business. You don't go after them on your own coin.

You think the public would stand for this if say Honda claimed you void any warranty if you don't use their oil filter and lubricants? Of course not, such tactics have been tried and failed.

Next round of warranty saga, is the development of 'smart bolts' in Europe. These will have data recorders embedded that would reveal if a fastener had been removed or loosen by anyone other than factory/dealer personnel. Thus, they void your warranty for messing around with a part.
There's a dark side to every industry.

As for grease, it depends on your needs. No one single grease is best for everyone.
If drag is an issue, run on a thick oil and re-lube after each ride. Or a thin white lithium or moly grease.
Personally, viscous drag is over-rated in grease performance. It's irrelevant to most riders. What little added drag is overcome by the inertia of bike/rider. Protection and long-term lubricity is what's important to me. Silicone greases (Marine, Phil) offer superior waterproofing, won't run/bleed, very sticky. I find it great for hubs, BB, headsets that don't have good sealing. If you don't submerge the parts in water (and that water will infiltrate everything) it'll last a long time and cut down on maintenance for those who don't enjoy wrenching.
I also like the extreme pressure characteristics of moly greases. Barring contamination, it should protect the races, cups and cones best and make them last a lifetime.
But just about any off-the-shelf grease will easily serve the needs of a bike.
I like to overhaul bearings based on mileage, not a time schedule.

It's not, I guarantee you it's not. I made once a colloidal suspension of lithium grease in some special solvent (although this is not a real solute, but a sol) and used that on my chain. Worst and funniest mistake I ever did. I posted the story somewhere but thanks to bikeforum's broken search engine, I can't find it. Anyway, it was like riding through molasses.

100% agreement

Irrelevent to 99.99% of riders. Unless your trying to shave .1 sec of a 100K TT in the Olympics or trying for the hour record it dont mean nothin.

I remember that post. Most entertaining, and very descriptive!

I believe that was a home-brew chain lube thread.
But IMO, that example isn't relevant, as it's an example of wrongful application. Imagine comparing twirling a chopstick in a vat of molasses as compared to a spatula.

Your riding conditions are extreme, and call for above average preparation. What passes for most of us, will leave you stranded.

They wouldn't be extreme (well, maybe compared to California they are) if it wasn't for the dirt.

And yes, you are completely right that it was a case of "wrongful application" but it did teach me that on the chain I want to use the least viscous lubricant I can get away with (i.e. so that it still sticks to the chain).

Almost correct. The question was about noticeable performance...

Spelling corrected.

I don't think many people could reasonably say that there is a noticeable difference... There might be one, but it would be like the princess and the pea.

I've taken it upon myself (actually, others have) to try to steer lube/grease threads toward alcohol.

Anybody ever try any of the beers made by the Belgian "Trappiste" monks??

I was in Belgium last year (Stopped at the subway station called "Eddy Merckx," btw) and tried all six "official" versions.

Oh, God, are they good......

not exactly belgian, but belgian style and they support cycling too

they're owned by duvel now (and have been for several years). not as good as when they were indy.

Could you please not do that? Lube discussions happen because some people have the need to find out. I know I learn something new every time. Living in Finland, however, I see alcohol not leading to anything good, ever.

Of course, I am aware I can simply ignore such posts/posters, but I try to avoid that.

Okay. Fair point.

[shuffles off......]

Here's what I've been using for years, good ol' blue boat trailer grease:



About $4 a tub.

There is a standard of tests for grease that may be suitable for bike use. There are others for automotive and other applications that may also be relevant. ASTM F2489-06 Standard Guide for Instrument and Precision Bearing Lubricants-Part 2

Grease isn't just grease - here are some of the tests you can peform to consider use:

Water Washout Characteristics of Lubricating
Oil Separation from Lubricating During Storage
Corrosion Preventive Properties
Roll Stability
Cone Penetration
Dropping Point of Lubricating Over Wide Temperature Range
Wear Preventive Characteristics
Extreme-Pressure Properties
Life Performance
Detection of Copper Corrosion
Elastomer Compatibility
Low-Temperature Torque
Oxidation Induction Time
Evaporation Loss
Dirt Content
Be-Quite Noise

Would you want to use a grease that promotes rust or has lots of dirt already?

I hope this is not a trick-question: my answer is no.

No trick question. It is that all greases are not the same as some imply in this thread. There will be better greases for each bicycle application, and they will perform better.

^^^ Oh absolutely!

But I guess most of the participants in this thread have taken the default stance that "grease" is what you use on bearings, not on the chain. For this reason my comment about viscous drag being very important was perhaps uninteresting for them - the topic is not what works on chains but what works on bearings.

That said, again, I'm 100% with you; the lubricant characteristics are always important, and there are many features to take into consideration.

All these standards you cite apply to high heat, high pressure, high speed applications, none of which occur in a bicycle bearing system. Most bicycle bearing failures are due to loose bearings, not grease failure. I challenge anyone to point to any bearing failure on a bicycle because of grease failure. I'll even accept anecdotal evidence.

Please name 1 type of grease that has dirt in it and promotes rust???I've got to hear about these....

Probably the pig squeezings they use on Walmart Chinese $49.95 POS bikes.

I appreciated the attempt to divert this thread into a beer discussion. No topic gets as acrimonious, divisive and as filled with mis-information as lube threads. These things get long fast for to no benefit.

Case in point:the thread on "motor oil will damage your chain". It up to about 6 pages and has generated a lot of heat and little light.

I disagree. I think both are generating some insight. I DON'T appreciate diverting threads to topics a few of you guys prefer. Are you bored with this topic? Then just stay away from it. I am bored shitless of the various 10-speed chain on 9 speed drivetrain and double to triple conversions (mostly because I have now only singlespeed bikes) but I don't go there talking about nanotechnology or japanese restaurants.

Maybe you think you can get away with such behaviour because.. I don't even know why, but it is a childish behaviour nonetheless. Not everybody has to like the same things you do. If you have this urge to talk about alcoholic beverages, start a thread about it, even in the mechanics forum, why not, and go crazy.

Oh, come now. We've all learned a lot about scotch.

Wroom, that thread started as a mockery of a ridiculous comment in a magazine. While I agree that people really should pay attention to the things they care about and leave everyone else to talk about what *they* care about, that thread started in mockery.

But you're right. Time for a new thread.

That thread was VERY useful for me!!! If it didn't exist, I might have never learned the brand of lube SRAM puts on their chains in the factory. Thanks to that thread (and the dude that went to the trouble of getting in touch with SRAM), I now have two cans of this magic ointment, and have now applied it on my chain, and it seems to work as well as new SRAM chains - that is, beautifully.

And while I am answering you here, this answer is not meant to imply I disagree with this post of yours: in fact, I agree with you 100%, in everything you said. I just don't think that, just because the thread started in mockery, it was not valuable. As it is, it might have been the most valuable thread of the year, at least for me. The guy who contacted SRAM has, on his part, learned the exact type/designation of the lube and ordered it from Germany. So, that makes two people already who had very tangible benefit from it.