Your preferred general purpose assembly grease please..
- Thread starter wafter
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overmind
My other bike is a Pinarello
- Location
- Reading, Berkshire
I just use multi-purpose lithium grease. You can get a big tub of it at Wilko. It costs peanuts. About £5 for 1/2 kg. For most people that would last about 10 years.
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Thanks - gave that a quick google and found a few accounts of it drying out - have you had any issues like this? I really want the bike back together today and Wilko's would mean a trip in the car (precisely the sort of journey I'd want to do on the bike that's currently in a million pieces
) so might just bite the bullet and bother the LBS..
vickster
Legendary Member
Copper grease. A small tub will last decades
Eg
Anti Seize Copper Grease For Bikes Cycles Cars High Temperature Assembly Lubricant 30g https://amzn.eu/d/iP2qlWZ
Eg
Anti Seize Copper Grease For Bikes Cycles Cars High Temperature Assembly Lubricant 30g https://amzn.eu/d/iP2qlWZ
There’s many an anonymous engineer who I’ve said a heartfelt thanks to when dismantling an old piece of equipment and finding traces of copper slip on the threads.
Thanks - bit of a sore subject actually as I've bought two tubes of it over recent years and the bloody stuff seems to evapourate - spent a good chunk of yesterday looking for it in the usual places and it's nowhere to be seen
I've read conflicting reports on using it for seatposts etc, however would definitely be using it on all the fixings if I had some to hand. My late father was a mechanic and I used to do all my own work on my own vehicles; so rightfully I had the importance of copper grease drummed into me from an early age and certainly lived to appreciate this guidance!
I want the bike back together so caved and went to the LBS - coming away with some Weldtite TF2; which from it's characteristics looks Lithium-based but with the added burden on the environmental conscience of containing PTFE (probably for no good reason other than marketing)
At least I have a fat tube of generic moly grease for the bearing surfaces, which I can use in the smugness of knowing that I've not been reamed by the marketing machine on that occasion..
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I've been using a big tin of grease from the railway depot I was attached to in the mid to late 70's. If it was good enough for carriage and wagon bearings it is good for my bike, and it has been. Coming to the end of it now, but nearly 48 years on, but I think it will see me out, and it is still good.
All threads get a little amount on them to aid with tightening and undoing.
Wheel, BB and headset bearings have benefitted from it over the years with no problems at all.
All threads get a little amount on them to aid with tightening and undoing.
Wheel, BB and headset bearings have benefitted from it over the years with no problems at all.
presta
Guru
For decades I used the tin of grease on the garage shelf that went in car grease nipples back in the days when they had them, then when I got into cycle touring I bought a small tube of the white lithium grease for no particular reason other than it seemed to be the stuff to have. When I got to opening up the stuff I'd put it in, I found that all the volatile compounds had evaporated off, and all that was left was a chalky dry residue, and a PITA to remove it.
Since then I've used some red stuff in a tube I picked up in Halfords cycle dept.
The original stuff I was using is Castrol LM, which is a lithium grease, but it's pale brown, not white, and it doesn't dry out.
Since then I've used some red stuff in a tube I picked up in Halfords cycle dept.
The original stuff I was using is Castrol LM, which is a lithium grease, but it's pale brown, not white, and it doesn't dry out.
midlife
Guru
When I was growing up my dad had a tin of grease that had a circle of metal resting on the top with a hole in it, as did the bike shop. Press on the circle and grease came out of the hole while the disk slid slowly down the inside of the tin. Castrol I think. Never seemed to run out. Got some Weldtite lithium stuff in the shed now though lol
The grease I'm still using was Castrol. What grade I can't remember.
I must have at least ten different greases in my workshop and will almost always use whatever is the nearest to hand.
The only exceptions, where I will search-out a specific grease, is when I need an oxygen-compatible grease for high O2 environments or a copper grease for assembling dissimilar metals.
On my bikes, pretty much anything will do for me.
The only exceptions, where I will search-out a specific grease, is when I need an oxygen-compatible grease for high O2 environments or a copper grease for assembling dissimilar metals.
On my bikes, pretty much anything will do for me.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Dag Hammar
Senior Member
- Location
- Essex
I have a tin of that exact same Castrol grease in my garage and I still use it occasionally. I bought it in 1973 and it is still useable, i.e it has not dried out or deteriorated. It is useful to be able to press down on that metal disc and a blob is forced up through the central hole.
Cheers all - glad this thread has at least brought back some happy memories 
Tbh I'd much rather be the man who knows what he's doing and has an appropriate bulk source of the most appropriate solution; unfortunately this wasn't to be on this occasion.
On the up-side the Weldtite stuff seems to do the job well and has good reviews so it seems I've not bought a necessity-driven turkey.. PTFE-guilt notwithstanding.
Tbh I'd much rather be the man who knows what he's doing and has an appropriate bulk source of the most appropriate solution; unfortunately this wasn't to be on this occasion.
On the up-side the Weldtite stuff seems to do the job well and has good reviews so it seems I've not bought a necessity-driven turkey.. PTFE-guilt notwithstanding.
