Wowham

I have a very old bike. shogun 400 1982.
is there a specific bearing grease I should use when reworking it?

VegasTriker

Age makes no difference. You want a lightweight grease, not the thick bearing grease used in vehicles. Any bike shop can sell you a tube of grease.

base2 

Just plain bearing grease from the autoparts store. My local shop uses the red automotive wheel bearing grease for disc brake automobiles. Every nut/bolt/thread

I use the blue/green marine wheel bearing grease meant for boat trailers & the like. Plenty of hubs have crossed my workbench repacked with the stuff.

Sometimes, I use Finishline Teflon grease from another bike shop I try to not frequent, but do anyways on account of location. It stays put in headsets, bottom brackets and everywhere else, really, in all weather quite nicely.

I've never used Phil's, but I've never heard anything bad.

Bicycle grease tends to be much more expensive for the amount you get. But, TBH, it's just not that big a deal on bicycles. That you serviced your bike & used clean/uncontaminated/free of grit grease at all is the main thing.

Keeping the big picture: Many bikes never get serviced at all & last decades. I wouldn't think too hard. Grease is grease in this sort of thing.

Brocephus

Yup, what he ^ said. Pretty much any cheap bearing grease from any auto parts store, or auto section at Walmart,etc, is gonna be perfectly fine. No need for weeks of research and shelling out big bucks for some uber-premium,bike-specific product.
The past few years, I've been running on a tub of Bel-Ray waterproof grease, that came highly recommended by very smart and knowledgeable yacht captain I know (this was actually concerning some motorcycle maintenance I was doing, but it's since become my go-to grease for bicycles and everything else.)
Trust me, if it's good enough for that guy.......
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BlazingPedals

^^^This.
I've used fancy stuff and I've used no-brand automotive grease. It all works the same. A small tube of Phil's will cost more than a big tub of automotive grease, but it's all basically the same stuff. The advantage of bike grease is, it doesn't come in a lifetime-supply size.

fietsbob

I bought the stuff for boat trailer wheel bearings..

Fahrenheit531 

I've become a fan of Mobil1 Synthetic grease from the auto parts store. Excellent function, cool color.

In other news, 1982 isn't a "very old" bike.

rollagain

Whatever you use, just make sure you thoroughly clean out the old stuff first. Many greases are incompatible with each other and mixing them can lead to lubrication failure.

Brocephus

The concept of a grease being "bicycle specific" is a marketing scam foisted on the gullible. There's nothing to "worry" about with an automotive grease, as there's no "risk" to using Mobil 1, BelRay, AutoZone,etc. on your hubs. Bikes use steel roller bearings, no different than a million other machines. They don;t have any special needs requiring a special grease.
And the pros are going to use whatever grease they're given for free by their sponsors. If they were paying for it, I'd be willing to bet they wouldn't be buying little tubes high-dollar stuff from the bike companies, they'd likely be using a pretty wide range of quality greases much like those listed above.

mstateglfr 

To use something specific would be to use...grease. Call it auto grease, call it marine grease, call it bike grease- if it doenst just ooze out while packing and is clean of debris- then its great to use.
When have you ever cared what the pros use?!? Thats hilarious coming from you.

GamblerGORD53

Welcome to Krazy Grease?. Home of the Premium, Multi-Purpose Grease!! <<< Click here, official site.
FANTASTIC lube. From a recent thread>>>

I have IGH bikes, so I use a lot of grease. I got this absolutely GREAT stuff, Krazy Grease, at an auto/ hardware supermarket. 1/2 litre for about $9. It's waterproof and synthetic. I doubt anything is better.
I have it on everything>> wheel hubs, seat post, pedals, bolts, BB threads, headset, 1pc crank BB on old CCM. pedal threads.
My pedals have one sealed bearing and a grease bushing on the other side. Some of them have over 15,000 miles.
I just took apart my Phil BB after 5 years/ 15,500 miles on a tour bike. The K greased BB shell threads came as clean as new. The bearings were squeaking, so put in new ones.
My SA 5w has done 45.8 mph with this grease.

IME >>> PHIL grease is drippy GARBAGE <<<
Most if not all bicycle specific greases are crummy and expensive for NO reason. IMO

brian3069

I know better than to post in a grease thread, but I just can't stop myself. I use Lucas X-tra heavy duty. It uses the same thickener and seems very similar to Park Polylube at one third of the cost.

no motor?

I replaced my front wheel bearings a couple of rides ago and used automotive grease then. I'm not going to do anything that's not going to be beyond the capabilities of that grease that I can think of.

mstateglfr 

As long as nobody uses chain lube to grease bearings, that study neednt apply here.

Brocephus

Somebody should be along shortly to argue that WD40 is a perfectly acceptable bearing/hub lube !

Lemond1985

"Be wary of Greeks bearing grease."

no motor?

Or wax...

Moe Zhoost

I use Chain-L for my chains. It's a thick sticky oil that I believe would work quite well for wheel and pedal bearings and perhaps even BBs. Many racy riders used to use oil instead of grease for the performance edge from decreased friction. High maintenance I bet.

I have not seen the referenced study. Maybe the standard for good lube was oil.

ramzilla

Way way way back in the day (like in the 60's & 70's) everybody was using white lithium grease on their wheel bearings. But, now a days, every body is using green water proof grease:

https://www.sturdybuiltonline.com/Lu...ubs_p_621.html

veganbikes

I like my Phil Grease for most things.