Grease

[miro]

Thanks for the reply,
I have no idea what are the condition in Seattle but I find their grease to sticky - Sta Lube - AL complex marine grease. Makes the hub sluggish. I also have doubst that small needle bearings in the planet gears get lubed.
Internal gear hubs are quite popular in the north Europe, and for condition here I use the following recept.
1. Disassemble the right cone - for Nexus/alfine 7,8 special tool is required - add liberal amount of grease - right cone is the most prone for oil leaks use shc 220
2. Smear gears with SHC 220 too
3. Submerge the hub in 75w90 oil or lithium NLGI 000 grease
4. Let dry for 15 minutes
5. Assemble
The hub is ready for next 3years or 10,000km whatever comes first.
Remarks the sealing of nexus 3 is not as good as nexus 7,8/alfine8,11. For nexus 3 I use Calcium sulfonate grease - Total Ceran xm220

 

[anga]

3. Submerge the hub in 75w90 oil or lithium NLGI 000 grease

What 000 grease do you use?

 

[MRC01]

Having worked on bikes since the 1980s, I've seen a lot from neglected beaters to multi kilobuck racing bikes. The most common problems I've seen with bicycle grease are:

1. Grease does not prevent metal-metal contact or wear, likely due to insufficient film strength or viscosity.
2. Insufficient amount of grease; maybe there was at some time in the past but the grease did not stay in place, and leaked or migrated away
3. Grease contaminated or diluted - most often by water, but also by fine/tiny particles of sand, dust, etc.

After working in different shops and using different greases over the years, about 20 years or so I tried Schaeffers 221 #2. The viscosity is about right; it seems thick but it doesn't make bearings sluggish. It has a tackifier agent and stays in place for years or thousands of miles, without leaking or migrating out of place. It also resists/repels water pretty well. Over the years it's become my "go-to" grease. Of course, no doubt there are other good greases that also solve these problems.

 

[LavaRand]

I have a half-used-up tube of sticky blue marine grease that I stole from a previous employer almost 20 years ago (the cap was missing and they were throwing it out actually). I'm still using it today.

Unless it's an IGH, special greased brake, or something like that, it just doesn't matter guys.

 

[MRC01]

... Unless it's an IGH, special greased brake, or something like that, it just doesn't matter guys.

Two reason I don't believe this:
1. Over the years I've seen too many bearings that failed prematurely due to low quality or insufficient grease.
2. When properly serviced with high quality grease, I've seen bearings look like new after several years and several thousand of miles.
Grease Matters!

 

[sk_pete]

I'm using M1 grease.

I'll be switching over to a calcium complex grease eventually. Shimano's Dura-Ace "Special Grease" is a product of Agip(Autol Super 2000 Long Life) that's Ca-based. WD-40 Specialist Multi-Purpose Grease and Loctite ViperLube are two decently-available Ca-based greases.

Interesting, ca should withstand water more, pressure water, etc.
I have nlgi2 li ep, and nlgi4 ca non ep.
Next time I will do everything with Calcium ,but wheel bearings do need ep chemicals? Is this critical?

 

[sk_pete]

Hi, does anybody know more details (nlgi grade, oil visco) of sram butter, slick honey?
so far i see calcium thickener in msds.
thanks in advance !

 

[853okg]

Campy grease was the best available for cup and cone bearings. It was made by Kluber and rebadged. You can still get it from Kluber and it’s still expensive.
There are many readily available bicycle greases that work well. I prefer a white grease, so often use Finish Line. Maxima makes a good grease, even though it’s blue. We’re living in a golden age of lube, IMO.

 

[anga]

Campy grease was the best available for cup and cone bearings. It was made by Kluber and rebadged. You can still get it from Kluber and it’s still expensive.

What is the name of the Kluber grease?

 

[853okg]

What is the name of the Kluber grease?

IsoFlex Topas NB 5 was the old Campy grease originally sold in small round containers and later in squeeze tubes.

 

[y_p_w]

I remember some used to recommend just hardware store white lithium grease, but others recommended green Phil Wood grease.

 

[wander2039]

This time I just used a tub of marine grease from OReillys. The green grease prior just seemed to tacky. Prior to that moly grease seemed to thin. In 20k never had any grease related failures though. Typically repack once a year.. 3k-ish.

 

[facility1]

use park tool poly grease in tube,its 8 dollars or so,, or get a tube of polyurethane type grease ,its used for electric motor bearings ,,works quite well in bicycle bearings,,,(mobil polyrex EP ) for example

 

[anga]

IsoFlex Topas NB 5 was the old Campy grease originally sold in small round containers and later in squeeze tubes.

I get hits for 52 and not 5.

 

[MRC01]

I remember some used to recommend just hardware store white lithium grease, but others recommended green Phil Wood grease.

That's a good recommendation. Back in the 1980s when I worked in a bike shop, Phil Wood grease was better than the super-cheap grease we used on kiddie bikes, but not by much. For the high value bikes, including my own race bike which had Campy Super Record, I used hardware store white lithium grease. It was excellent, far superior to Phil Wood.

 

[y_p_w]

That's a good recommendation. Back in the 1980s when I worked in a bike shop, Phil Wood grease was better than the super-cheap grease we used on kiddie bikes, but not by much. For the high value bikes, including my own race bike which had Campy Super Record, I used hardware store white lithium grease. It was excellent, far superior to Phil Wood.

I remember seeing Campy grease thinking that it must be made with unicorn poop to cost that much.

At the bike shops I went to, I remember Phil Wood grease was pretty cheap back then, and had a much different odor than white lithium grease. But they didn't recommend it for anything that had unsealed bearings (especially Campagnolo bearings with grease holes in the cap) since it was thin and would apparently come out rather easily. But Shimano hubs and pedals typically had seals that would keep them out.

I thought that maybe Park Tool had a white lithium grease that was more reasonably priced but meant for bicycles. A lot of the hardware store white lithium grease tended to be heavier since it might be used for things like greasing garage door springs and not for bearings.

 

[MRC01]

Over the years I've arrived at using a #2 grease in wheel bearings and other applications, which is a bit heavier than the #1 greases that are often used. It does have a bit more drag, but the cost of that is probably less than 1 watt, while it makes bearings last longer. One of my bikes had 20k miles on the original bearings using #2 grease, and when I gave that bike to a friend last year those bearings were still were perfectly smooth and shiny, ran like new.

Grease holds oil in suspension, so with some greases, you can reduce the viscosity by adding a drop or two of oil that the grease will absorb. If you do this make sure the oil and grease are compatible.

 

[UG_Passat]

marine grade grease from Wal-Mart.

mainly when I had speedplay zero pedals, and had to flush the grease oil annually

Mavic hubs uses cartridge bearings, the rear rachet pawls uses a light oil.

My cane creek headset uses cartridge bearings.

If I had Shimano wheels... with cup and cone bearings, I would try using Finish Line ceramic grease on them, for kicks.

 

[totegoat]

10K on bicycle, time for grease?

 

[NYEngineer]

Someone recently gave me a small container of Dumond Tech Pro to try. I used it yesterday on the ratchet mechanism in my DT Swiss Big Ride. Excellent grease for driver mechanisms. Very soft, very slick.