Rebuilding an old Peugeot frame and need to grease the headset and bottom bracket
It's for use around the city, no massive weather variations
I'm out in the boonies and it's a bit of a trek to get bike specific/thicker grease but I'll head out for some if it's necessary
I have this stuff laying around that I use for truck kingpins and the like, is this a decent option? It's lithium based.
by NATO-Uniformen
8 Comments
I learned maintenance and repair from my dad, and he learned it from his dad, we always used generic automotive grease for bikes. Put a good ol’ glob of it on there and it’ll be fine. I’ve never had issues doing it like that.
This is what I use. It’s good grease.
Grease is grease, any grease is better than no grease.
Honestly, bike specific greases are over priced for what they are. Outside of a few niche areas, grease it up with standard grease.
I use marine grease that doesn’t turn to sludge and solidify with water and time. There are definitely differences in the petroleum products dues to refinement and additives but if you’re doing your headsets and hubs frequently enough, you should be fine.
For more high-tolerance or more sensitive bearings, a specific grease is probably called for.
In your case (loose or caged steel bearings in an older Peugeot with steel cups and races), a multi purpose grease is going to be just fine and fully equivalent to the green Park brand grease used at a lot of shops.
TL;DR: you’ll be good to go!
For that Application should be fine. I like super lube silicone as a general purpose. The applications you are looking at are all low speed so honestly there biggest issue is making sure it doesn’t run out and keep parts coated. Bearings I get a little more picky. Free hubs and suppression I use that is spec.
I still believe, that the best one is green Castrol grease. But proper maintenance is FAR more important than grease brand.
NLGI 2 will be perfect.