Barium grease?

"Jim Adney" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:40:13 -0400 mike anderson
wrote:

I am trying to find a good grease for bearings and I am looking for
opinions about barium greases.
Here is a, non-lithum based, grease, Petro-Canada's: 'Barimol
Heavy' with Moly (Molybdenum Disulphide). It is an, according to the
tech data, extremely water-repellant barium soap based grease with
Moly for bearings (and more), tech data sheet PDF file:

http://www.petro-canada.com/eng/prodserv/lubesgreases/pdf/im7826e0301.pdf

It sure looks promising but is it good or bad?

Bicycle applications make extremely light demands on greases. Almost
anything will work for you here. I don't see anything that would
recommend a barium grease over any other grease. For more information
about greases, I just found this site:

http://www.reliability.com/articles/article66.htm

Grease is very poorly understood by the public. There's very little
about it that is magic, and spending lots of money for most specialty
greases is a total waste. The only things we need to worry about are
its tolerance to water and ability to inhibit corrosion.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

A very good piece on grease. It sure makes the cheap, plentiful and very
available lithium grease look good, doesn't it?

mike anderson wrote:
I am trying to find a good grease for bearings and I am looking for
opinions about barium greases.
Here is a, non-lithum based, grease, Petro-Canada's: 'Barimol
Heavy' with Moly (Molybdenum Disulphide). It is an, according to the
tech data, extremely water-repellant barium soap based grease with
Moly for bearings (and more), tech data sheet PDF file:
http://www.petro-canada.com/eng/prodserv/lubesgreases/pdf/im7826e0301.pdf

It sure looks promising but is it good or bad?

I have been at google but there was surprisingly little mentioned in
RBT about barium grease, just a single comment saying that it (barium
grease) was industry only - not for bikes, lol, a bad sign perhaps
But yet, has the subject been investigated enough?
I have been in touch with a chemist at Petro-Canada who thought it
(barimol heavy) would be excellent for bikes.

Any help would be most appreciated, thanks
mike anderson

Why bother? The green marine bearing grease always worked fine for me.
Phil Wood used to put it in a tube and sell it for extra $$$.

mike anderson wrote:
I am trying to find a good grease for bearings and I am looking for
opinions about barium greases.
Here is a, non-lithum based, grease, Petro-Canada's: 'Barimol
Heavy' with Moly (Molybdenum Disulphide). It is an, according to the
tech data, extremely water-repellant barium soap based grease with
Moly for bearings (and more), tech data sheet PDF file:
http://www.petro-canada.com/eng/prodserv/lubesgreases/pdf/im7826e0301.pdf

It sure looks promising but is it good or bad?

I have been at google but there was surprisingly little mentioned in
RBT about barium grease, just a single comment saying that it (barium
grease) was industry only - not for bikes, lol, a bad sign perhaps
But yet, has the subject been investigated enough?
I have been in touch with a chemist at Petro-Canada who thought it
(barimol heavy) would be excellent for bikes.

Any help would be most appreciated, thanks
mike anderson

Why bother? The green marine bearing grease always worked fine for me.
Phil Wood used to put it in a tube and sell it for extra $$$.

In article ,
Jim Adney wrote:

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:40:13 -0400 mike anderson
wrote:

I am trying to find a good grease for bearings and I am looking for
opinions about barium greases.
Here is a, non-lithum based, grease, Petro-Canada's: 'Barimol
Heavy' with Moly (Molybdenum Disulphide). It is an, according to the
tech data, extremely water-repellant barium soap based grease with
Moly for bearings (and more), tech data sheet PDF file:
http://www.petro-canada.com/eng/prodserv/lubesgreases/pdf/im7826e0301.pdf

It sure looks promising but is it good or bad?

Bicycle applications make extremely light demands on greases. Almost
anything will work for you here. I don't see anything that would
recommend a barium grease over any other grease. For more information
about greases, I just found this site:

http://www.reliability.com/articles/article66.htm

Grease is very poorly understood by the public. There's very little
about it that is magic, and spending lots of money for most specialty
greases is a total waste. The only things we need to worry about are
its tolerance to water and ability to inhibit corrosion.

Another good article on grease properties (but with a bit of
marketing thrown in) at http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/GREASE/index.htm
Defines all of those mystery words on some tubes of grease like
"reversibility."
Personally, I use auto wheel bearing grease because I had a tub of it
and it seems to shed water slightly better than plain "lithium grease"
in the tubes at the hardware store.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail.net

In article ,
Jim Adney wrote:

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:40:13 -0400 mike anderson
wrote:

I am trying to find a good grease for bearings and I am looking for
opinions about barium greases.
Here is a, non-lithum based, grease, Petro-Canada's: 'Barimol
Heavy' with Moly (Molybdenum Disulphide). It is an, according to the
tech data, extremely water-repellant barium soap based grease with
Moly for bearings (and more), tech data sheet PDF file:
http://www.petro-canada.com/eng/prodserv/lubesgreases/pdf/im7826e0301.pdf

It sure looks promising but is it good or bad?

Bicycle applications make extremely light demands on greases. Almost
anything will work for you here. I don't see anything that would
recommend a barium grease over any other grease. For more information
about greases, I just found this site:

http://www.reliability.com/articles/article66.htm

Grease is very poorly understood by the public. There's very little
about it that is magic, and spending lots of money for most specialty
greases is a total waste. The only things we need to worry about are
its tolerance to water and ability to inhibit corrosion.

Another good article on grease properties (but with a bit of
marketing thrown in) at http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/GREASE/index.htm
Defines all of those mystery words on some tubes of grease like
"reversibility."
Personally, I use auto wheel bearing grease because I had a tub of it
and it seems to shed water slightly better than plain "lithium grease"
in the tubes at the hardware store.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail.net

mike anderson wrote:
Thank you for your input.

Bob Wheeler wrote:

I can't help on the barium grease, but let me recommend Versilube,
G322L, a silicone lubricating grease.


Thank you for the tip, it sound great, however, I live in Sweden and
it seems like it is not available over here.


Jim Adney wrote:

For more information about greases, I just found this site:

http://www.reliability.com/articles/article66.htm


Thank you, interesting article.


Threeducks wrote:

The green marine bearing grease always worked fine for me.


The barimol heavy is indeed suited for marine use.

I was hoping for a disscussion about barium grease, not lithium. And I
sure do not want to open the can of worms wether or not lithium
trigger galvanism between steel and aluminium and therefore you better
use anything but lithium.
I would like it to be about the pros and cons of barium grease in
general and this one (barimol heavy) in particular. I would also like
to know if Moly is wasted on bikes because the metal to metal heavy
load conditions is not that significant, or if it do have a beneficial
effect.

Thanks again
mike


i'm not a rheologist, but here's what i understand. barium greases are
fine in this application, if not necessary because bikes are not very
challenging for bearings. most of the time, moly greases are not used
unless there are really heavy loads because it's so slippery, the
bearing elements can slide, not roll and that leads to flat spots &
subsequent failure. this may arguably be good in an impact environment
like a headset, but not for much else on a bike.

regarding silicone greases, dow corning "33" silicone grease is superb &
readily available. doesn't oxidise, dry, crack, or emulsify. it also
does not rot rubber like normal hydrocarbon greases. i've got some 33
that is 20+ years old and still perfect. it does however tend to creep
very slightly, so if you have it in a head set for instance, you'll
notice having to wipe a very thin oily film off the paint periodically.

mike anderson wrote:
Thank you for your input.

Bob Wheeler wrote:

I can't help on the barium grease, but let me recommend Versilube,
G322L, a silicone lubricating grease.


Thank you for the tip, it sound great, however, I live in Sweden and
it seems like it is not available over here.


Jim Adney wrote:

For more information about greases, I just found this site:

http://www.reliability.com/articles/article66.htm


Thank you, interesting article.


Threeducks wrote:

The green marine bearing grease always worked fine for me.


The barimol heavy is indeed suited for marine use.

I was hoping for a disscussion about barium grease, not lithium. And I
sure do not want to open the can of worms wether or not lithium
trigger galvanism between steel and aluminium and therefore you better
use anything but lithium.
I would like it to be about the pros and cons of barium grease in
general and this one (barimol heavy) in particular. I would also like
to know if Moly is wasted on bikes because the metal to metal heavy
load conditions is not that significant, or if it do have a beneficial
effect.

Thanks again
mike


i'm not a rheologist, but here's what i understand. barium greases are
fine in this application, if not necessary because bikes are not very
challenging for bearings. most of the time, moly greases are not used
unless there are really heavy loads because it's so slippery, the
bearing elements can slide, not roll and that leads to flat spots &
subsequent failure. this may arguably be good in an impact environment
like a headset, but not for much else on a bike.

regarding silicone greases, dow corning "33" silicone grease is superb &
readily available. doesn't oxidise, dry, crack, or emulsify. it also
does not rot rubber like normal hydrocarbon greases. i've got some 33
that is 20+ years old and still perfect. it does however tend to creep
very slightly, so if you have it in a head set for instance, you'll
notice having to wipe a very thin oily film off the paint periodically.

Thank you for your input.

Bob Wheeler wrote:
I can't help on the barium grease, but let me recommend Versilube,
G322L, a silicone lubricating grease.

Thank you for the tip, it sound great, however, I live in Sweden and
it seems like it is not available over here.


Jim Adney wrote:
For more information about greases, I just found this site:

http://www.reliability.com/articles/article66.htm

Thank you, interesting article.


Threeducks wrote:
The green marine bearing grease always worked fine for me.

The barimol heavy is indeed suited for marine use.

I was hoping for a disscussion about barium grease, not lithium. And I
sure do not want to open the can of worms wether or not lithium
trigger galvanism between steel and aluminium and therefore you better
use anything but lithium.
I would like it to be about the pros and cons of barium grease in
general and this one (barimol heavy) in particular. I would also like
to know if Moly is wasted on bikes because the metal to metal heavy
load conditions is not that significant, or if it do have a beneficial
effect.

Thanks again
mike

Thank you for your input.

Bob Wheeler wrote:
I can't help on the barium grease, but let me recommend Versilube,
G322L, a silicone lubricating grease.

Thank you for the tip, it sound great, however, I live in Sweden and
it seems like it is not available over here.


Jim Adney wrote:
For more information about greases, I just found this site:

http://www.reliability.com/articles/article66.htm

Thank you, interesting article.


Threeducks wrote:
The green marine bearing grease always worked fine for me.

The barimol heavy is indeed suited for marine use.

I was hoping for a disscussion about barium grease, not lithium. And I
sure do not want to open the can of worms wether or not lithium
trigger galvanism between steel and aluminium and therefore you better
use anything but lithium.
I would like it to be about the pros and cons of barium grease in
general and this one (barimol heavy) in particular. I would also like
to know if Moly is wasted on bikes because the metal to metal heavy
load conditions is not that significant, or if it do have a beneficial
effect.

Thanks again
mike

Dave Thompson writes:

I am trying to find a good grease for bearings and I am looking
for opinions about barium greases.

Here is a, non-lithum based, grease, Petro-Canada's: 'Barimol
Heavy' with Moly (Molybdenum Disulphide). It is an, according to
the tech data, extremely water-repellant barium soap based grease
with Moly for bearings (and more), tech data sheet PDF file:

http://www.petro-canada.com/eng/prod...m7826e0301.pdf

It sure looks promising but is it good or bad?

Bicycle applications make extremely light demands on
greases. Almost anything will work for you here. I don't see
anything that would recommend a barium grease over any other
grease. For more information about greases, I just found this site:

http://www.reliability.com/articles/article66.htm

Grease is very poorly understood by the public. There's very little
about it that is magic, and spending lots of money for most
specialty greases is a total waste. The only things we need to
worry about are its tolerance to water and ability to inhibit
corrosion.

I don't see a recommended type of grease in the above and that's what
most bicyclists need to know. Formerly, chassis lube available at
auto parts stores for less than 1/10 the cost of bicycle greases was
the best and most common grease. Now it's disc brake wheel bearing
grease, grease gun type lubrication having all but vanished from the
auto industry (at last).

A very good piece on grease. It sure makes the cheap, plentiful and
very available lithium grease look good, doesn't it?

If you mean "white greases" like Campagnolo or ones for automotive use,
I advise against it, because these greases readily oxidize and become
tar, literally gumming up what they are to lubricate. Just the smell
of a old polymerized white grease is sickening.

Jobst Brandt