What grease repack my bearings with.

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frogatthefarriers
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What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by frogatthefarriers »

Last weekend I encountered some deep water. See my post in "Todays Ride".

The water was well over the wheel axles. I'm thinking it will have penetrated deep inside and will eat the bearings if left unfettled. Given that MTB bearings will regularly be soaked like this, is it worth finding some waterproof grease for the job, like the stuff that's used for launching trailers for boats. This would be for axles, freehub bottom bracket, and jockey wheels.

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paramart
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by paramart »

I use marine grease on everything lasts longer than normal grease, but water and crap still get through
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ianfitz
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by ianfitz »

Back in the day I used to strip and rebuild all my bearings after pretty much every ride! Mainly because I was a super-keen teenager living at my parents house with F*** all else to do...

All the modern bearings I have on my bikes now are sealed units so pretty much maintenance free. Would guess this is the case with modern bikes at most price points these days.

Is there play in them? Or resistance when turning? If not they are probably fine. If so then there are plenty of youtube video showing how to extract the bearing races, pop off the seals, and regrease (I have no idea what grease to use - I realise this was your question!)

I think my LBS replaced a couple of drive side bearings in one set of wheels for me in the last three years. I've ridden about 20,000km off road in that time so figure that modern bearings are pretty well made :-bd
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rando nomad
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by rando nomad »

We used to use boat trailer grease to repack bearings in hubs and BB's back in the cup and cone days of hearings. Cheaper it seemed at the time then bike specific grease and lasted through BC winters which sound the same as The UK- lots of rain and muck :smile:
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Wotsits
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by Wotsits »

You'll soon find out if there much water in there if you leave the bike standing for a while. If enough water has gotten past the seals it'll give it enough time to start to develop rust, then when you initially go to turn a wheel or crank it'll first feel stiff, then rough afterwards.. Will be even worse in freezing weather as the water will turn to ice!

I'm in the same position after last weekends 'white water biking' ride. Need to get on with some hub & bb inspections before this weekends winter bivi :geek:
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Zippy
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by Zippy »

If they're buggered by the water - all you're doing is eeking a bit more life out of them (discovered this as a stoodent).

You can look up grease comparability charts etc. to your hearts content http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Rea ... patibility but the reality is a general purpose lithium grease will probably do the job alright - bicycles are harsh conditions for bearings in terms of grit and exposure etc, but they don't exactly require vehicular levels of machinery with tolerances for expansion due to temperature requirements...


When my bottom brackets started seizing up after washing etc. and were past their best, I used to just fire a load of gt85 down there to free them up - and then sometimes afterwards cover with grease. With regards protection...the rubber seal is the best thing for the job - and remember that doing extra seals might actually trap stuff in worse (Water in water out).
So er yeah, just be careful etc.

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HUX
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by HUX »

Silkolene Pro RG2 synthetic racing grease gets used for everything here. As used by my lbs too. Used alot in moto-X. £10 for 500g and it lasts ages.
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Mike
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by Mike »

If u can find the bloody stuff that is
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fatbikephil
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by fatbikephil »

Halfords moly grease is well up to the job for bicycle applications and a bit cheaper than RG2. Even hope are a bit stingy with their grease so I always pop one seal off and squirt as much grease into the bearing as I can using a Pace pointed tip grease gun
frogatthefarriers
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Re: What grease repack my bearings with.

Post by frogatthefarriers »

Thanks for the help chaps. I've ordered some pukka marine grease. Time to get the fingernails dirty.
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