Ok to use Mobil XHP 220 motor bearing grease for bearings?
 

Any reason something like Mobil XHP 220 motor bearing grease wouldn't work for any bearing on a bike?

What's the reason to pick that grease? It's what you have on hand? It's what you read was magic:)?

Unless the riding is going to be in conditions on the edges of the weather bell curve most generally available greases will do just fine. Until it becomes contaminated or washed out. Servicing bearings is like bathing. It's less about the soap brand then the fact you are doing some sort of cleaning routinely. Andy

I saw elsewhere that someone was using it because they have some left over from a previous job. Seemed to me it should be fine - just curious if there's something I'm not aware of that might be a problem. If they've got a tub of it it'll probably last several lifetimes.

The only issue I can see- if I read the data from Mobil correctly (odds are about 1 in 5), 220 is a NLGI 0 grease, that may be too thin. Don't get a 5gal pail before you get some of that grease in your hand to look at. Farm machinery, trucks, cars, grade 2 is the most common.

https://www.mobil.com/en/lubricants/...x-pdsdatasheet

https://www.nyelubricants.com/need-t...se-consistency

For myself I'm probably many years from using up my tube of Park Tool PPL-1.

Could something that holds up in commercial washing machine motors be inadequate for a bicycle?

Bikes as we know them really don't like pressure sprays. The meager seals our components have don't do a good job with pressure washers or car washes. I think you'll find that a commercial washer has a fair amount of separation between the wet parts and the motor bearings.

I still stand by my first reply that most any grease is fine and it's how frequently we service our bearings that is vastly more important than which lube we use. Andy

I wasn't even thinking about water intrusion which my understanding is should be avoided. I was thinking of the amount of stress and vastly higher RPMs washing machine motor bearings are going to be subjected to. Seems that lube should stand up to anything it's going to encounter in a bicycle.

Except maybe water intrusion, which you admittedly didn't consider and on a bike is more probable than with a motor that runs in an indoor environment.

As Andrew R Stewart said you will be fine; higher NLGI grades are mostly for higher temperature and pressure applications which cycling is not. Cleaning and re-greasing periodically is far more important than whether your grease has the consistency of peanut butter or mustard.

:deadhorse:

Does any lube stand up well to water intrusion? I keep seeing people say to be careful when washing a bike to avoid it. As I understand it that's why boat trailers constantly have bearing failures, because people don't stay on top of re-lubing them after they're submerged.

As good of a primer on the fascinating topic of grease as I've come across: The Complete Guide to Greases

The blue ‘waterproof’ grease resists this
more than other lighter, faster types of grease, but the grease itself doesn’t ‘seal’ your hubs or BB, unless you fill the entire cavity.

Those kind of bearing failures aren’t directly caused by submersion. A trailer wheel bearing, being backed down a boat ramp is a pretty low stress situation. If the bearing housing is full of grease, there will be nowhere for the water to go, and water won’t enter the hub.
this is why boat trailer hubs feature zerk fittings, because you have to keep them ‘full’ as opposed to highway trailers, which can be ‘dry’ other than the actual bearing surfaces.

leaving a void inside the hub, and filling it with water, then running it down the road will mix the grease and water, emulsifying it, and breaking down it’s lubricant properties. Let it go long enough, and you have a bearing failure.

If you ride in the rain a lot, repacking your wheels and BB with ‘waterproof trailer grease’ should be more than sufficient for the kinds of conditions a typical bicycle sees.

It isn't that most grease is water friendly and only some are "waterproof". Pretty much all greases are not going to dissolve away with water but that, as Ironfish653 said, the water and grease mix in an emulsion. At best the added water and thus added volume of the fluids will see some bleed out and reduce the actual grease amount in the bearing area. The water off the road isn't just water but contains chemicals not friendly to your bike and carries grit/grime, think of a polishing tumbler and its slurry.

Phil Wood long ago talked about how water and grease mix and how that leads to bearing failure. Back then it was known, with a wink and smile, that their claim of "waterproof grease" was a total marketing hook. It was their industrial bearing's better seals (compared to the metal dust caps common then) and proper preloading that made them last longer (and thus the dawn of "sealed bearing" began:)) Andy

This is my go-to for bearings. Bel-Ray. I use Park Polylube 1000 and sometimes SRAM Butter for just about everything else.

Anything suitable for ball bearings is going to be fine. Oil would be fine if you could keep in the bearing. Grease is used when you can't. Even the wrong lubricant is better than no lubricant. There's no reason to seek out something like Mobil XHP 220 if you don't already have it.

I use Maxima waterproof grease (competitor to Bel-Ray) simply because it's a bearing grease that I already have lots of from working on motorcycles. I even saw it on the shelf at a LBS where I bought a bike earlier this year and that bike had it on the seatpost from when the shop assembled it. It shouldn't have since it was a carbon post in an aluminum frame, but that's another discussion.

Great web page discussing this very subject.

https://bike.bikegremlin.com/1985/bi...ase-explained/

Mobil SHC 220 at the bottom of the page.

although it probably doesn't matter for bicycle component applications -

don't mix lithium and molybdenum greases


possibly the most significant impact of inadequate and incompatible lubrication (grease) :

Alaska Airlines Flight 261

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alas...nes_Flight_261

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https://billingsgazette.com/news/wor...d19b057b8.html
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https://products.kitsapsun.com/archi...robe_chec.html

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Grease Incompatibility Caused Alaska Air Crash: Report | Aero-News Network

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If you have it use it, otherwise just buy a tube of Phil's and be done with it.. nothing better for bikes IMHO

and whatever you do, don't get the stupid white lithium grease that hardens up, as at some point in the future you or someone else will curse it

"Moly" greases frequently are lithium soap-based greases. I would say just avoid moly grease on a bicycle altogether unless it's specified. I can't think of anywhere it would be needed.

Check your sources. The official FAA accident report 1.) is newer than the linked news articles and 2.) concluded this:

Yes - I have the link and report (all zillion pages lol)

Aeroshell 33 was not the problem (itself) - but compatibility issues still exist

Although the grease combination did not meet industry standards - it was ruled out as a cause

( The cause was inadequate lubrication due to failed maintenance practices )


terrible tragedy



2.3.5 Summary of Possibilities Ruled Out as Reasons for the Excessive Acme Nut Thread Wear

As a result of the findings discussed in sections 2.3.1 through 2.3.4, the Safety Board concludes that Alaska Airlinesí use of Aeroshell 33 for lubrication of the jackscrew assembly, acme screw thread surface finish, foreign debris, and abnormal loading of the acme nut threads were not factors in the excessive wear of the accident acme nut threads.


Standardized grease testing conducted by the U.S. Navyís Aerospace Materials Laboratory on mixtures of the two greases indicated that the grease mixture did not meet the industry standard for compatibility at the 90/10 and 10/90 ratios. However, test results showed that the incompatibility had an insignificant effect on the lubrication performance of the grease.

Mobil XHP220 is specified for high temp, Hi PRESSURE uses... your bicycle will not produce either in a bearing, as long as the bearings are properly adjusted.

the XHP grease is available in a range of NLGI specs... 2 or below is ok for bicycle use.... i've had best results using 0 or 1 grade in low load environments... better lube FLOWBACK is the reason for a thinner grease in a low temp. environment.

Mobil Does Make some of the best greases i've used.... there was a Mobil Marine grease that was used on ExMark Mower blade spindles that was INCREDIBLE., but was WAY too thick for most applications.. it was specified for Valve shafts and threads in Undersea Oil Well capping use.... the mower shafts run in a high water and chemical bath environment... (FERTILIZER!)... most greases fail in a matter of weeks...that Mobil stuff made disassembly two years later just like the day it was assembled.

The marine bearing greases do pretty darn well. A local bike mechanic years ago turned me onto the stuff. Hubs with less than great seals will go several winters with the stuff and the grease will stay as blue as when it went in. (Any auto parts store. Pre-COVID, $8 a tub of grease cartridge.) Think about it. That grease was formulated to lubricate a hub at highway speeds, then be immersed while still warm in salt water. Re-dipped in that salt water, then run down that highway while still wet. Not much we can do on a bike that will come close to that level of abuse. (Targeted pressure spray just might be that one exception. A gentle garden hose spray won't touch the stuff. I do that all the time.)

Now, on a boat trailer that gets submerged in salt water - that's a different story entirely. Yes, regular maintenance with grease is required. And if you regularly do downhill competitions on bike and come off that last jump into a salt water pond with hot bearings, you might have to also. But routine Portland, OR winters of commuting 25 miles round trip, 3 days a week? I try to remember to look at the hubs every two years. (I pack them with all the marine grease I can stuff in, so it oozes out first roll.)

As usual, the most important factor in grease selection is that it's always better to use grease than not use grease.

Molybdenum Disulphide grease is frequently sold at the auto parts store as CV Joint or CV Axle grease.

The only places I can think of this grease being used in the bicycle world is the grease specified by Haberstock Mobility for lubrication of their Schlumpf drive 2 speed epicyclic crankset.

The other place is the "special" Shimano grease for Shimano roller brakes. Though, I can't say for certain if the special Shimano approved super-secret-squirrel formula really is plain ol' Mos2 grease or not, it sure looks & feels the part.