Lithium grease
 

Hi, I recently purchased a set of V3 Pedals. Unfortunately, the guy didn’t have any lithium grease left, so I need to buy some to grease them. I’m curious about the differences between lithium grease and lithium soap grease. Also, what do the colors mean, like white or green lithium grease?

Just use white lithium grease.
If you need to know more, use Google.

IMHO do not use white lithium grease. over time it hardens and gunks up.
I have had to hack this junk out of old bearing multiple times

just get a tube of phil's https://www.amazon.com/Phil-Wood-3-O...s%2C171&sr=8-1

oh do we get to have the story again about the color of the grease?

meanwhile, $17 for 3 oz of grease! jesus

Just grab a tube of this:
https://www.amazon.com/Park-Tool-PPL...1zcF9hdGY&th=1

I've used this for years in shops for everything from pedals to bearings to seatposts.

white lithium grease is meant for exposed uses like hinges, door locks, and such. it turns hard to stay in place.

cheap plastic, unsealed pedals might be a good use.
a low weight grease will work in pedals... and don't Over-Pack them, or you'll be stirring grease instead of enjoying your rides, and the excess grease will grease your pedals AND SHOES! definitely NOT the hot setup.

the good white lithium grease' price has skyrocketed for no real reason... Lubri-plate.
avoid it, just to teach the price gougers a lesson.
or shop until you find the lowest price.... a squeeze tube should be under $10 dollars, US.

lithium soap grease was a bad joke, and remains a bad joke.

and it will last for years of rebuilding bikes.... kinda like Brylcreem a little dab will do you

I just clicked that link and saw I purchased a tube in 2014, and I have 13 bikes in the garage and some other folks who bring theirs for a visit.

Yeah, save the white lithium for working on other people’s bikes.

Would also recommend going down to your local shop and getting a nice tube of Phil Wood Waterproof Grease. Made in America good quality, long lasting and has a Phil Wood Logo on it, hard to beat that.

Well, it probably is one of the cheapest things you can get with a Phil logo

I think I may have long ago gone over one or two whole bikes and cleaned out every bearing and replaced the old grease with red boat-trailer grease. Motivation was occasionally getting caught out in the rain, but one of the bikes was a mtb that I did take offroad when I had the chance.

Back in the day, auto greases were differentiated by "sliding contact" for ball joints, steering linkage, etc, and black lithium grease was recommended, and "rolling contact" for wheel roller and ball bearings, which was called "long fiber" grease, contained no fibers, that referred to the long slender string it made when you scooped out a bit from the tub.

These days the tub'o'grease, if heavy duty wheel bearing grease, is good for both applications. I got something like a 4 or 5 pound tub for $10, enough to last several lifetimes, STP red 500F drop point.

Under recommendation of a LBS that does big repair business of Internal Gear Hubs in a city that is very wet in the winter, I now use waterproof marine trailer wheel bearing grease, it's an opaque pale green; CRC Sta-Lube Blue Boat Trailer Wheel Bearing Grease, product code SL3125 (again, it's actually pale green), you can find it cheap at RV supply stores or marine supply. The shop lubes the inside of the IGH with Phil Tenacious Oil and also that grease on the gears, and then plenty of grease on the ball bearings to help seal out water.

I have a circa 1989 tube of Phil grease, but it's a bit thick due to age, the unit cost is now high, and I think the other greases have progressed in tech a bit more.

It takes about 20 years for white lithium grease to solidify in a hub or BB. I use it all the time, even in Campagnolo hubs and BB's. Never have had any issue with it. Of course I don't go 20 years between cleaning and lubing these items.

I like my old tub of carquest hi-temp wheel bearing grease. I have found the tub doesn't leak out it's oil and seperate like the tubes you insert in a grease gun when stored wrong.
I almost find the applicator more important, since that really cuts down on fussing around. Those tiny grease cans look great, I use a mini grease gun and that spits out just the right amount for me.

I also have experience of lithium grease (white) drying out on me.
I now use Motorex grease 2000. Used for all grease applications (bike, motors, garden equipment). 30.00 for a tub that should last the rest of my life

Well, yeah, white is about the only color that's still allowed.

And $17 is about a dollar a year, so NBD.

The Shimano/Dura Ace grease in my 7400 pedals is as viscous and translucent as the day it was put in 40 years ago. Except for Phil’s, that’s the only grease I’ll ever use.

Still have my tub O' White Lithium grease from probably 25 years ago. It's made from petroleum. Ya know, like from 100 million years ago.

I remember to this day being at the auto parts store reading all the labels, studying the containers when I guy I know comes up and says, "Jeez, just pick one. It's grease!"

Used some the other day, not gunked up at all. It's.....grease.

One more thing: I used to pack some into a dental irrigating syringe so that I could just squirt some in the right place without making a mess. Now that I am retired, I don't have a good source for those. Anyone?

Search for glue-up syringes. They make them with all sizes of straight and curved tips. HomeDepot and HarborFreight have them. Amazon has seller's hawking all sorts of them.

I just use these tips to fit on the syringes left over from shots I have to give myself. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF59DCT5...fed_asin_title

White lithium is crap. Spend the additional $10 dollars on your $5,000 bike and use good grease.

I did that with a large bore syringe with some Super Lube synthetic grease, stuck into my bike tool box. Years later I went to use, impossible, the rubber piston on the plunger end was frozen solid in the plastic syringe housing.

I acquired a box of these (work was scrapping them) a few years ago. I've been using the same one for bearing grease for years, just keep re-filling it.
You can cut/ trim the tip with scissors as needed to facilitate flow (also useful for sucking out old brake fluid from reservoir when re-newing/ flushing the system.)
There are similar ones out there for less money, but I don't have experience with them.
One tiny caveat: The rubber plunger has trace amounts of Silicone on it. That's why work was disposing of them, as we were using them for adhesives. and Si is a no-no. Probably not an issue when dispensing grease.
https://www.amazon.com/Monoject-3072...=sr_1_4?sr=8-4

I'm happy with this:
https://www.whitelightningco.com/pro...crystal-grease
Not cheap, but when buying the 1# tub, less than Phil.

Phil grease is good stuff. But one tube lasts forever. I been working on the same tube for 30 years or so. Sealed bearings don't take much grease.