Grease
Browse bike grease for sale from riders across the UK. Grease is oil held in a thickener so it stays where it is packed — hub and headset bearings, bottom bracket shells, seatpost, pedal and thru-axle threads — and it is bought in everything from small syringes for a single job to 450g workshop tubs that last several seasons. It suits anyone doing their own bearing work rather than dropping the bike off.
What sort of grease does a bike need?
A general lithium-complex bearing grease handles most of it, and something marine-grade or explicitly waterproof is better in the places that see standing water — bottom bracket shells, rear hubs and headsets on winter bikes. PTFE-loaded greases such as Park Tool Polylube 1000 and Finish Line's are common on threads and cable ferrules. Anti-seize is a separate compound for titanium bolts and steel-into-alloy fasteners, and carbon assembly paste is separate again: gritty, deliberately high-friction, and used so a carbon post or bar grips at its rated torque.
Grease or chain lube — which goes where?
Grease never goes on a chain. It is too thick to reach the inside of a roller, so it sits on the plates gathering grit and does nothing useful — that job belongs to chain lube. Grease belongs anywhere two surfaces are clamped or rotating in a sealed space, and anywhere a thread needs to come apart again in two years' time.
Can I use car or general-purpose grease on a bike?
For a plain bearing or a thread it usually works, but there are places where it does not. Hydraulic brake and suspension seals are chemically specific — a mineral-oil brake wants a compatible grease at the lever piston, and fork wiper seals want a slick, low-drag product such as SRAM Butter or Slickoleum rather than a heavy bearing grease that adds stiction. Anything that finds its way onto a rotor or pad means new pads, so wipe threads clean after packing.
How do I tell if grease has gone off?
Look for a layer of clear oil sitting on top and a stiff, dry crust below — that is the oil bleeding out of the thickener, and the grease under the crust is generally still usable. What ruins a tub is contamination: grit or brake fluid introduced on a finger or a dirty tool cannot be got back out. Use a spatula or a syringe, keep the lid on, and store it away from a heater.
Is a big tub better value?
Usually, because a single service uses very little and a 450g tub outlasts several overhauls, but only if it stays clean and sealed for that long. Small syringes make sense for a specific job — packing one hub, or greasing a set of pedal threads — and for suspension-specific products you will not use often. Sealed tubs and unopened syringes are the ones worth buying from other riders; see the rest of the range under lubricants and the damper fluids under suspension oil.