Cone bearing grease

For your purposes, either grease is fine.

Generally any lithium based grease would be fine for bearings and cones etc. on a bike. Teflon based (what you have there) will be fine too, but in my experience, anything that's marketed as "for bikes" will be more expensive that general purpose bearing grease

A quick caveat - be careful not to use copper grease for lubrication purposes

Halfords “multi purpose grease” about €5. One tub will do you for years.

Alek wrote: »

I find Shimano Premium grease lasting forever in bearings - it's really water resistant and quite thick.

https://r2-bike.com/SHIMANO-Premium-Grease-100g

I re-grease all new bearings before using, as the factory grease tends to disappear quickly in Irish weather.

I've no doubt that it works well as a grease, but it works out at €125 per kilo. General purpose lithium grease will work out at about a tenner a kilo.

I struggle to believe the shimano grease is more effective by a factor of ten

Alek wrote: »

Who the hell needs a kilo of grease for home bike maintenance? ;D

I have the tub from the link for two years now, 1/3 left still. I use it for everything bike-related, and I did not have to re-open a single hub where it sits, so far. Same with headsets.

It's the time you're buying, not the grease, really.

I've a tub like I linked to above for maybe 5 or 6 years now. I've rebuilt two bikes from bare frame using the Holt's grease, and I've had no issues either.

Like I said earlier, I'm sure the Shimano branded stuff does an excellent job, but I hate when companies blatantly over-charge for a product.

The Shimano grease, to my mind, would have to last 10 times longer than generic grease to be worth that money. I regreased my headset after 2 years of use, took me about 15 minutes.
Shimano grease would want to be lasting 20 years for me to pay their price

harringtonp wrote: »

Thanks guys, replace ball bearings and greased up. Once wiped, old bearing looked pretty much the same as new, i.e. round. Do loose bearings wear ?

There is a bit of a knack in getting loose bearings in/out without dropping them all over the place

New bearings are very shiny, older bearings look progressively duller (surface is microscopically worn). If it’s more than a little bit noticeable, it’s probably time to change them.

Tip for handling loose bearings: a small magnet (one from a kitchen cabinet or smaller). Park Tool’s UP-1 pick set is what I use (magnet on top of handle).