alternative lubes thread
 

so there are TONS of bike specific lubes out there, for every purpose under the sun, but they are all expensive. there are EVEN MORE general or non-bike-specific lubes out there, that work GREAT on bike applications. what NON BIKE lubes do you use?

I have used homemade citrus cleaner made of lemon/lime/vinegar. cheap but ineffective. automobile brake parts cleaner is AMAZING, but I'm scared of how nasty it is, and I always strip parts off the frame before cleaning.

I use red marine heavy duty tub grease from walmart ($4 for A LOT) for basically everything that needs grease, including rebuilt headsets and bottom brackets, and all threads. I use cheap spritzer gun cleaner for anything that needs a cleaning and penetrating cleaner/lube (like FD/RD pivot points or just getting surface stuff off of chainrings), PB Blaster for anything stuck, and baby wipes for the frame and any random grease on drivetrain parts.

I have used brake parts grease with great success for long intervals, but it's dirty. I've even used coconut oil from the kitchen for pedal spindles, and it is VERY thin and VERY clean, and it smells good too. I bet you could use it on a lot of parts. Just today, I used "shoe goo" to secure my cadence magnet into the pedal axle hole for the cadence sensor.

none of these are bike specific, but they all work great! what non-bike specific cleaners, lubes, adhesives, and greases have you used that are long lasting and effective?

Petroleum based greases can deteriorate rubber. I wouldn't use anything petroleum based on anything with a rubber seal. Mobile 1 (red) is a good general purpose grease and it doesn't harm rubber.

I've been meaning to try some crystal grease and have heard good things.


-Tim-

bike lubes, compared to generic lubricants and greases of the same spec or better, area always more expensive. don't undeestimate the power of walmart to stock cheap %chapthis is how marketing works. my point is simply that any heavy duty all temp all weather grease will work as well or better than "bike grease" that you guy at a "bike shop." they are selling you something that works at a given markup. the reality is that they have a tub of red all purpose heavy duty grease from walmart too, but they put it in a little jar and charge you triple for the "parts and labor."

I use emu tears or I can't believe it's not butter, whatever I have on hand.

You should try Unicorn tears instead. I use a chain lube collected as dew from the breasts of virgin fairies.

Some things don't matter very much to me. When my cost per year falls into the single digits, I stop worrying about it.

I bought a 4 oz. bottle of Chain-L lube a couple of years ago, partly because I like the guy who sells it. The way that I use it that bottle will last me for several more years. I suppose that I could have bought a quart of motor oil and a gallon of mineral spirits for about the same amount of money. Had I done that, I'd just have a lot bigger container of home brew chain lube sitting on my work bench.

I also have a tub of Park Poly-lube on my workbench. I don't remember how long I've had it but it's at least 10 years old. I suppose that I could have bought a lot bigger tub of something from WalMart or Auto Zone for about the same amount of money but then I'd just have a bigger container to work around.

There's more to value than cost per ounce.

:roflmao2::roflmao2:

I don't think you realize that "synthetic" oils and greases are synthesized from petroleum. They share the same properties as "petroleum based" lubricants otherwise they couldn't be used in the same applications.

You also can't make the broad statement that "petroleum based greases can deteriorate rubber". Some might but others don't. Petroleum based products cover too wide a range of materials to make that claim. Even saying "rubber" covers too broad a range of materials to make that claim. "Rubber" includes a whole host of elastomeric materials with vastly different properties. Natural latex doesn't stand up to much of anything well but, thankfully, not much natural latex is used in bicycle parts. Buna rubber, which is pretty common in bike parts, stands up to petroleum products quite well.

I should have said silicone based instead of synthetic. Obviously the Mobile 1 product is not silicone based. That was my mistake.

It is generally accepted that petroleum based lubricant run the risk of deteriorating rubber and plastic o-rings, seals, etc. We can argue about what constitutes a petroleum based lubricant or discuss the definition of rubber but the safest thing to do is to avoid petroleum based products if there is any doubt about contact with plastic or rubber.

I err on the side of caution. People are free to use what they want, or to just laugh at me as is the case with your response. It wasn't the first and won't be the last. I really don't care.

For those who have an interest in the topic apart from mocking however, Napa Sil-Glyde is a good, general purpose silicone grease and dirt cheap.

http://s7d9.scene7.com/is/image/Genu...Company/215803

as an alternative to all the other lube threads gone before Ha!

I have been using some soy (green) based grease. The "red" type is very good. I have it in several hubs and BBs for several years and they are doing well.
http://hardwareonlinestore.com/image...uct/376530.jpg

The "white" version, however, is not as good. The oil seems to separate easier so I use for threads etc.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....1PIncdicRL.jpg

It really depends on what you desire. In general, bicycles are a low stress environment, so basically anything works reasonably well. You could probably use bacon grease provided you changed it goes rancid.

Since bicycles are relatively benign environment, the high temperature properties of a grease are basically irrelevant. That allows the manufacturer a little more lee-way in optimizing for other properties.

One way to think of grease as running the spectrum from performance to durability.

Something like Shimano Dura-Ace grease is a relatively thin grease formulated for minimal rolling resistance in wheel hubs. At the other end of the spectrum you have marine wheel bearing grease, which will be significantly more weather-proof at the expense of slightly more drag, since hubs never really get up the operating temperature range of automotive grease. ParkTool grease is somewhere in between.

Similarly, buying things because of a volume discount may not be economical. Except older folks who seem to stock up on toilet paper.

Simply do not fall in to the the trap that says anything like grease that in this case says "bicycle" on it is good. While they may be ok, they are usually way too high priced for what you get. IMO and can of automotive grease that will last a cyclist for years is fine.

Umh isthis thread code for something else because I'm both intrigued and wildly turned on

Those are two very different materials.

It may be "generally accepted" by people who don't know anything about materials, especially elastomers (aka "rubbers"). But it is also very untrue and not accepted by people who actually know something about materials. Some elastomers shouldn't be used with some petroleum products but a blanket statement that all elastomers shouldn't be used with all petroleum products is overly broad and shows a lack of knowledge about chemistry. If you expand the statement to all plastics...of which elastomers are a subset...the statement is even more incorrect.

Generally speaking, plastics...including elastomers...on bicycles are resistant to any degradation caused the classes of petroleum products used common bicycle lubricants. Shimano, for example, has been using a "rubber" seal on their hubs for 25 years or more. I have yet to see one that has deteriorated because of the grease in the hub.

Given the title and intent of this thread, I would even go further and suggest that some of the "alternative lubricants" being suggested could have unintended effects on the very "rubbers" and plastics you are trying to protect. Buna rubber, for example works quite well in the presence of the petroleum based products used in bicycle lubricants. It doesn't fare so well in plant based oils like citric oils, olive oil, corn oil, etc., however. It's difficult to predict how a material will perform in the presence of different materials.

Sorry, I shouldn't have used that emoji. I apologize for that.

I err on the side of knowledge which is better than erring on the side of caution. My work requires that I know about material compatibility all the time. I've been bitten by materials incompatibility too often to do otherwise. Bicycle maintenance doesn't require that level of scrutiny...unless you go off the rails and start using weird combinations of materials in some misguided effort to "stick it to the man, man!". The nice thing about those "expensive" bicycle products is that they have generally been tested for compatibility with bicycle parts. Other chemicals may surprise you in very unwelcome ways.

While it may be a good grease, it's no better or cheaper than Park Tool Polylube or Phil Wood "green" grease. But even those aren't any better or cheaper than just about any other grease used for automotive bearing applications, although, in my experience, the automotive greases are thicker. Bicycle specific greases tend to be a bit lighter and easier to turn.
None of them are going to harm anything on a bicycle, however.

On the other hand don't fall into the trap that says anything with "bicycle" on it is automatically expensive and bad.

Bingo!

There are other things to consider as well. A huge tub of grease from Helmart might last for a very long time but that just increases the chance of the grease getting contaminants in it.

This means more to me than you know.

Water under the bridge.


-Tim-