The right grease

For discussions about bikes and equipment.
kwackers
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Re: The right grease

Post by kwackers »

Mick F wrote:Yep.

As I said, count me in if it's the Right Stuff!
:D

You going to be a test pilot?
cyclingthelakes
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Joined: 13 Aug 2009, 2:34am

Re: The right grease

Post by cyclingthelakes »

kwackers wrote:If you've got the stuff you should use it, but my point was I wouldn't go out of my way to buy something special. (Although I'd draw the line at olive oil or petroleum jelly - good for lubricating plastics though.)

Worth noting you can over pack with grease, in machinery it can cause the bearings to overheat. Given the low power of bicycles I don't know how much of an issue this could be but it would probably affect the bearings efficiency.


To clarify this, there have been times I've been in the house and can not really be spraying petrol around, like I said, quick fixes.

Now, I've got foam on the handle bars and those I've massaged with olive oil. It works okay, nothing spectacular but they are holding up okay.
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CREPELLO
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Joined: 29 Nov 2008, 12:55am

Re: The right grease

Post by CREPELLO »

cyclingthelakes wrote:
kwackers wrote:If you've got the stuff you should use it, but my point was I wouldn't go out of my way to buy something special. (Although I'd draw the line at olive oil or petroleum jelly - good for lubricating plastics though.)

Worth noting you can over pack with grease, in machinery it can cause the bearings to overheat. Given the low power of bicycles I don't know how much of an issue this could be but it would probably affect the bearings efficiency.


To clarify this, there have been times I've been in the house and can not really be spraying petrol around, like I said, quick fixes.

Now, I've got foam on the handle bars and those I've massaged with olive oil. It works okay, nothing spectacular but they are holding up okay.
Further clarification please! Particularly your tip on massaging olive oil into handlebar foam grips. Shurely a little greazy?
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CJ
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Re: The right grease

Post by CJ »

531colin wrote:OK, I found
Mobilith SHC 1500
$9.95 For a 400g cartridge (plus shipping from USA??) http://store.lubricants.com/Mobilith-SHC-1500-p/lubricants_conn10_003.htm
or 6 cartridges for £93.12, shipping £8.50 , both plus VAT from Gannon via E mail
But also...
Theres XHP 222, the latest incarnation of HP 222, which was CJ's second favourite after the paper mill stuff last time,
Thats £26.50 for 12 cartridges here http://www.lubricantsupplies.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=XHP+222,
probably plus VAT and shipping.

Now, seeing as I'm semi-retired and all, I might see my way to buying in XHP 222 by the box and selling at say five or six pounds for a 400g cartridge, including post.
Thats probably a sensible price, if the grease is good for bikes.

So, CJ, is XHP 222 good enough?
As a price comparison, Halfords list Castrol LM grease, 500g tub for £6.99

I have a bit left (from when I was in contact with John Southey 20 years ago) and am using it up in a grease-gun that apply to parts I've converted to injection lubrication. That's because it smells so horrible I don't want to get any on my hands and besides, I don't think its quite as good as the SHC synthetic stuff, which I more recently bought a few 400g tubes of.

The product I got that time was Mobilith SHCPM-460. The final number is the base oil viscosity, which is the basic factor in reducing the stress on your ball bearings. But synthetic oils are designed from first principles to have better squeeze resistance than a mineral oil of same viscosity, which can nevertheless be enhanced by EP additives like in the XHP product. But they're a bit nastly, like I said. So I'm sticking with the nicer synthetics in future. They cost more but for the amount you need to put in a bike that doesn't matter.

I remember a consideration at the time of John's original recommendations was packaging. I think he might have mentioned the existence of an SHC with higher base oil viscosity, but ruled it out if it wasn't available in UK in a reasonable minimum quantity like a 400g tube. There's not as much demand for such high viscosity because at the rotating speed of most machinery it causes the oil to get hot. But bikes don't have that problem, so we can use all the viscosity we can get. The Black Gold MTB bearing grease that used to be made by Ebony Lubricants (a small Manchester firm formulating special lubricants for the marine and oil industry) had a 1000cst base oil, which I know becasuse the keen cyclist who ran this firm didn't subscribe to the cycle trade's technical secrecy pact and told me all about it.

So: if Mobilith SHC-1500 can be got in 400g tubes, I'd like to try that. If it can't, I'll stick with the SHCPM-460 that I know and like.

Or I might just try some of that Rock N Roll Super Web. Like I said, their other stuff seems to do what it says on the can.
Chris Juden
One lady owner, never raced or jumped.
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meic
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Re: The right grease

Post by meic »

Ever so slightly off course.
Do you need any special grease for titanium? Of concern is the BB threads steel or aluminium and the seatposts carbon or aluminium.
Yma o Hyd
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Mick F
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Re: The right grease

Post by Mick F »

CJ wrote:So: if Mobilith SHC-1500 can be got in 400g tubes, I'd like to try that.

Ditto!

Anyone else wanting a tube?
Mick F. Cornwall
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7_lives_left
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Re: The right grease

Post by 7_lives_left »

Raises hand, "Me too, please!"
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531colin
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Re: The right grease

Post by 531colin »

I've been Googling again.....

I found CJ's favourite Mobilith SHCPM 460 here...http://www.oil-store.co.uk/Mobilith-SHC-PM-460-103.html

Its expensive.. will work out maybe 3 times the price (£15 - £18) for slightly less (weight) ie 380g in a cartridge, compared to XHP 222.

But if XHP 222 is going to smell so strongly of tom-cat pee that CJ doesnt want to get ANY on his hands (like the earlier HP 222 ), I for one won't mind paying that sort of premium. (unless it can be guaranteed to keep the neighbours cats from s******g in my garden)

EDIT....SHC 1500 is the dearest of the lot, about double SHCPM 460,

Any thoughts?
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Mick F
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Re: The right grease

Post by Mick F »

531colin wrote:I've been Googling again.....

I found CJ's favourite Mobilith SHCPM 460

Any thoughts?

Sounds ok to me, considering the 1500 will cost so much.

So, yes please.
Mick F. Cornwall
Euskadi
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Location: London

Re: The right grease

Post by Euskadi »

Mick F wrote:
531colin wrote:I've been Googling again.....

I found CJ's favourite Mobilith SHCPM 460

Any thoughts?

Sounds ok to me, considering the 1500 will cost so much.

So, yes please.


Yes please to a tube of SHCPM 460.
MikeL
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Location: Surrey

Re: The right grease

Post by MikeL »

I'd take one (SHCPM 460)
nez
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Re: The right grease

Post by nez »

This is a really interesting thread. I can make a non-technical contribution - if you want to keep cats out of the garden you need a Jack Russell. Cats aren't stupid. And I wonder if anyone would like to expand the subject to chain oil. I buy the liquid gold stuff from the LBS, but I feel such a dilly doing it because I just wonder if it's snake oil and A.N. Other oil would do in its place. I am as susceptible to salesmanship and copywriting as the next man.
John
ChrisButch
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Re: The right grease

Post by ChrisButch »

Some years ago the (old) CTC Shop briefly stocked a grease called Black Gold (which, confusingly, was green). This was a British product about which, If I remember rightly, CJ was very enthusiastic at the time. I've hoarded my dwindling stock ever since, and I must say it's been a longer-lasting bearing grease, under the testing conditions of our mucky mid-Devon lanes, than any other I've used since LPS2 in the 1970s. As far as I can tell, the manufacturer no longer exists. I wonder if the product could have survived under another name?
kwackers
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Re: The right grease

Post by kwackers »

nez dans le guidon wrote:This is a really interesting thread. I can make a non-technical contribution - if you want to keep cats out of the garden you need a Jack Russell. Cats aren't stupid. And I wonder if anyone would like to expand the subject to chain oil. I buy the liquid gold stuff from the LBS, but I feel such a dilly doing it because I just wonder if it's snake oil and A.N. Other oil would do in its place. I am as susceptible to salesmanship and copywriting as the next man.
John

It's difficult to sort out the hocus pocus from fact often, and even when the facts exist there's often little evidence that the best is really that much better. Bike parts don't cost a lot and last a long time with limited maintenance.

Regarding chains (Mick: Stop reading now), I read posts on here where people replace them every 1000 miles. My chain is now well over 5,000 miles old, I just have a tin of 'cheap' (£5?) oil that I give it and all the moving parts a spray with once a week. The chain has been cleaned with some white spirit and a brush (without removing it) just twice in that 5,000 miles. It goes out in all weathers, rain, snow and more importantly on gritted winter roads.
I had a good look at it last week and as far as I can tell everything looks spot on, no signs of wear on any of the sprockets, it runs well, changes well and seems to work just as well on the rarely used sprockets as the most used. Would it last longer with better oil? Can't say, but compared to some it's doing quite well.

(Saying that there's no doubt if I used Mick's chain it would last longer, possibly by quite a bit. But tbh I'm too lazy and time is too valuable...)
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531colin
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Re: The right grease

Post by 531colin »

SHCPM 460 comes in boxes of a dozen 380g cartridges, so if there are only 3 people wanting some (+me) then its a non starter. I will put an advert in "for sale" and hope for the best.
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