The tears of squirrels.

Enjoy

Hahaha. Lard isn't environmentally friendly because the meat industry takes a HEAVY toll on our planet!!! http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp

And I would suggest Astroglide over KY...

http://www4.briggsandstratton.com/di...sp?docid=99191

I've been considering getting a tub of the lanolin grease and using it like chain wax, heat in a crockpot and immerse the chain after cleaning and drying. Should also be good for hubs, bottom brackets, headsets, etc.

Ah come on people. Please tell me how about a half ounce of grease put in a bike is going to ruin the envroment. This is PC run amok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, a voice of sanity.

Not really. There's nothing wrong with wanting to minimize your impact. Everything ends up back in the soil and water sooner or later.

Fine, but you have to consider the entire chain from start to finish. Consider:

-Is the product manufactured specifically, or is it simply the formerly wasted by-product of another manufacturing process?
-What is the frequency of replacement, i.e., does it last as long and work as efficiently as another option?
-Does it protect the parts from wear for as long, or are you going to be replacing parts because you have chosen an option that is superficially more 'environmentally friendly'?
-Does the quantity of product you will use warrant searching out alternatives?
-Can it be used for multiple things around the house, or will it have one, single useful purpose?

My point is that frequently we are sold a bill of goods by marketing types. The entire cycle of a product and the effects of its usage should be considered, not just a fraction of it to proclaim the 'environmental' value of it.

I don't think this has been true for about 40 years.

I don't get it. You are being far more environmentally helpful by using a bicycle for as much commuting and short errands as possible than you are by using a few tablespoons of a different grease. What about non-petroleum based tires and tubes?

Quite right. And how much grease that you put in your bike will end up in the environment? Darned little, I'm sure.

They do make soy based oils and greases,if that's important to you.But it's only enviromentally safe if you don't use it,like all oils.Once you use it,it's hazardous waste,like all oils.It picks up contamination and heavy metals.

What if I rendered it myself from a local, sustainably raised hog?

What heat source?

Enjoy

This sounds great. This weekend I'm going to see if I can do some tweaking of the covalent bonds on my bike grease. A little polymerization or some heat-induced isomerization...tighten those bonds up nice and snug. Do you have a how-to for this? Maybe something off of instructables.com?

I'm sorry, I was always horrible at chemistry and those who are good at it always seem to talk about it as casually as installing new speakers in their car. :lol:

I use marine grease for the parts that are most prone to wear from water-exposure. Bottom bracket especially...also on the seatpost to seal up the seat tube. Tube of regular park stuff for everything else. The marine grease seems especially hydrophobic.

Pick up a 100ct. box of nitrile gloves at autozone or your local auto parts superstore, for about $12 or so. About half the price of Park Tool nitrile gloves and the same exact thing. Besides the toxic aspect, it's especially nice because completely clean hands are only seconds away so you can answer the phone, type a post on bikeforums.net asking how in the hell to get this @%$& bottom bracket out, or have a jelly donut and a coffee.

Best. lube. evar. But you have to squeeze the squirrel really hard to get tears.

Pliers

Enjoy

I would think that the tears of squirrels are more of a renewable resource than even the most sustainably raised hog. But yes, it is better than a factory farmed hog.

I still have some bikes that are oil lubricated and these are less environmentally friendly than a greased bike but man... do they ever run smoothly.

I usually oil them the night before I plan to ride as they do leak a little and do not want them leaking on to the ground... I catch this oil on cloths I set under the bb and hubs and this little bit of oil gets used to wipe down the old steel frames which protects them quite well from the elements.

An SA 3 speed hub will fling oil all over the place as wil a chain that has been over lubricated and not wiped down properly.

One should always use gloves when they are packing bearings as petroleum products are not good for you and are carcinogenic... this is especially important for people who work with grease and other lubricants on a daily basis.

100% of it. Eventually, either you wipe the old grease off and toss into the trash, or the bike gets junked, or the grease evaporates off. ;)

+1, although from what I've read, you may want to use different kinds of gloves depending upon the kind of solvent you are using. Latex gloves are about the worst for not letting stuff get through them; nitrile is better. But today I found out that nitrile gets eaten really fast by brake cleaner (probably no large surprise there). Still, gloves are wonderful at keeping gunk off your hands. I keep a couple of boxes around for the purpose.

That way they are less likely to be recycled than sanitized. Like on the go drink bottles.

Using your computer to ask people about environmentally friendly greases is doing more "damage" than using "eco-friendly" greases..hell, I'd bet using a bike does more damage in manufacturing terms than using grease over a reasonable time span. Not to mention the grease manufacturers use to keep their equipment running.