FS Tech's Grease Story has really got me thinking.

Does anyone have a specific recommendation for a grease for hubs and headsets? I want to upgrade from Pennzoil 705 but I definitely am not going to start spending $5 for a three ounce tube. I know that this kind of question has been posted many times, so I did a lot of searching in this forum and rec.bicycles.tech . Phil Wood grease gets most of the recommendations, it is justified or just a kind of religious devotion? Or even snobbery? Some other popular recommendations: LubriMatic Marine Trailer Bearing Grease & Park. I guess a solution is to buy a big tube of Phil , after all, this deal is not bad at all:

https://tinyurl.com/64yao

But I can't find that at my LBS, that's for sure.
There, it's just the 3 oz tube, which would last me about a two weeks.

Also, I want to reiterate the often-given advice to add grease to new Shimano hubs and adjust them.
40% of them are too tight from the factory, and when I open them, they definitely can use a lot more grease.

-----tvphobic

ps. I realize this is a redundant thread, having pretty well been covered Aug 04 at
https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mechanics/60269-what-kind-grease-do-you-guys-use-bbs-cranks-pedals-etc.html

Here's my question: has anyone actually ever used a grease that DIDN'T do the job? I mean I have some Pedro's that I'm finishing up and some Finish Line that I just got into. Both seem fine, I've never had a problem with either. I bought them because that was what the LBS had on the shelf next to the counter at the time.

I suppose it's nice to have white or other light, pure color so that it's easy to tell if the grease has gotten too contaminated. Case in point: I repacked my headset today (hey, what else is a guy to do when he's home sick?) and I could see that the bottom race was pretty grungy but the top was still nice and cream-colored like straight out of the tube. I only cleaned and repacked the bottom.

But apart from that, has anyone actually had a grease that didn't work out?

White Penzoil synthetic marine grease, wallymart,cheap. Oh la la .... Lubematic marine wheel bearing if you like green better.

If you like purple Napa's got some Amzoil that sounds decent.

Just about all the "premium" greases available at bike shops, Finish Line, Tri-Flow, Park, Phil Wood, Rock N' Roll, Pedro's etc. are fine, use any of them, enjoy the colors, marvel at the pleasant odor! They are all lithium complex greases-no clacium, and will have very good water wash out capabilities, as well as corrosion inhibitors, not to mention excellent shear and load properties.

Whitish, purple, green, red, blue are nice, becuase you can tell when they start to look gunky and in need of replacement. White tends to look nasty fastest, i.e. dirt + white = yuck. Might be a good thing-maybe you will clean and regrease more often!

But.....you really should be cleaning and regreasing based on a few other factors besides visual appearance. Like a time frame, after x many miles, after riding in wet weather, after dust/creek crossing/dust rides. Most places ya put grease are inside and hidden, so are you really pulling things apart and saying "Oops! Silly me, grease is still sparkling white!" and put it back together? I think not.

Yes the fancy bike specific greases are somewhat expensive. For example:
Phil Wood 14 ounce tube, $9.95. That's about .71 per ounce. Your average bicycle probably has 3-5 ounces of grease on it at any given time, so let's figure a median of $2.84 worth of grease pumped into the nooks and crannies.

How much did you pay for that sub-23 lb sled? $2500? That works out to about 368 ounces, so about $6.80 per ounce.

Hmmmm.

Anyway, in "Grease, a short story" I mentioned cheap grease use calcium as a thickener-this is the stuff you want to stay away from. Just because it says "Lithium" does not mean it doesn't have calcium in it. If you are not sure, read the labels, or ask for a technical data sheet, or research it on the internet. Or, the $1.98 for a one pound tub price tag will probably be a tip-off.

I tend to recommend the greases available in bike shops out of simplicity and because most of us here visit those places fairly regularly, and even though they are a little expensive, you have to judge for yourself how much grease you plan on using over a course of time. Most of the professional mechanics, or home mechanics who do a lot of maintanence are wise to find a greases that comes in quantity, and that perform to the standards required. This tends to rule bike shops and bicycle oriented/marketed greases out.

In my shop, I measure the amount of greases I use in terms of pounds; I use a lot of grease in a year, probably something like 20 + pounds, so cost is important. But so is performance, so I pay a little more for really good premium greases.

Ed

[QUOTE=bostontrevor]Here's my question: has anyone actually ever used a grease that DIDN'T do the job? I mean I have some Pedro's that I'm finishing up and some Finish Line that I just got into. Both seem fine, I've never had a problem with either. I bought them because that was what the LBS had on the shelf next to the counter at the time.

QUOTE]

Not on a bicycle application (which would probably be preferable, and less expensive), but yes. I regularly see the direct result of an improper grade or type of grease being used in an application that resulted in horrible damage to equipment.
This is sometimes a result of cheap grease being used. Sta-lube's "Multi-Purpose Super White" is about as cheap as you can get. It's a calcium soap base, even though it says "Lithium" on the label, because it has a small amount of lithium added. But frankly, this stuff seperates into a base oil on a warm day, and the white that is left behind after the lubricating oil drips out turns to concrete. How do I know this? Well, for some reason that must be a very popularly availalbe cheap grease, becuase I find tubs of it on the municiple equipment (open road line stripers etc.) I service all the time. Usually I am replacing bearings and bushings that got chewed up due to lack of lubrication.
Bicycles are relatively low impact and low speed, and they are human powered, so if you use really cheap grease, when it starts to fail, things get tight, squeeky, hard to pedal and annoying. So it gets changed. Or parked indefinately.
Ed

In bike parts there is a such thing as going with too high a viscosity, just as bad as going too low. A lot of the marine greases will be on the thicker side, thats why I say toward the lighter side. The cheaper white lithium greases can be too thin for wheel bearings. I have also(people will shoot me for saying this) found Phil wood to be too thin for hubs. It works for other bearins but not hubs. As a rule I don't care for Pennzoil products(I know im a PA person). Amzoil makes a very good product, but again watch the viscosity, since a lot of their higher end greases are made for super high temp work. The highest a bike needs is 450(heavy use disc brake) so a normal automotive disc grade will work. Through my experience, Valvoline makes a good cost-effective and reliable product. #614 works in every application I have tried it in, and it will not age from sitting(One can in the garage is 30 yrs old and still looks the same).
Bike greases are potenitally different, but they are mainly hype. To pay 5 times as much for less grease is absurdity in my opinion.

The thing is, it's not like Phil, or whoever develops there own grease. They buy grease in bulk, then package it up and sell it for a 1500% mark up. It's a major scam, just like suspension fork oil. Buy a big tub of marine grease, or lithium, whatever you like the colour of, and be lubed up for the rest of your natural life. Bicycles are not very demanding with respect to grease. FWIW, I like that green marine grease. Works nice, smells nice, and it has that festive feel that makes every day seem like Christmas. Phil can kiss my cherry-red butt.

I'm not too sure about this. If you go to San Jose you can see the Phil Wood petroleum refining facilities and talk with their staff of lubrication engineers....

Ha ha ha ha ha...

I did tear down a Schwinn 564 to find white lithum grease that had solidified. It flaked off clean enough to repack without putting the bearings into a chemical sink.

Lubrimatic marine grease gets the nod on my fleet bikes.

Litovaya, are you testing your links before you post them? They are all coming back in a Polish language page which is going to be unreadable by the vast majority of members of this forum. It would be nice to see what you are trying to get across, but with all due respect, it would be much more useful in English.