Rust coloured grease...Why?

morstar
morstar Posts: 6,190
edited March 2010 in Workshop
1st question, is it common, 2nd question, why use it?

I had a tiny bit of play in my forks so took them out yesterday to have a good clean up before re-mounting them. Initially I was a little concerned by the completely opaque rust colour over the entire areas of movings parts. Inspection unearthed no evidence of rust anywhere so I can only put this down to the grease used being rust coloured itself. Anybody else experienced this? Seemed an odd choice. I'll take it apart again in a month or so to check but I'm sure there's no underlying problem.

Comments

  • topdude
    topdude Posts: 1,557
    It's just red grease, could be black, white, brown, all sorts are used.
    He is not the messiah, he is a very naughty boy !!
  • tonyw43
    tonyw43 Posts: 249
    If it's rust coloured (copper) then it's probably copperslip. It's an anti seize compound.
  • morstar
    morstar Posts: 6,190
    Cheers guys,

    I'd say it's a darker brown than copper so I'm sure it's just a dark coloured grease. Seems a weird concept to me, using something rust coloured to lubricate metal componentry, but hey ho, there you go.

    The important thing is how much smoother the ride is now.
  • tri-sexual
    tri-sexual Posts: 672
    yeah, its copper grease or copperslip
    its more of a bronze colour
    its mainly used in enviroments where heat is encountered, normal grese tend to break down or "melt" in these conditions and will no longer provide any protection/also more freeze resistant than regular grease
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Don't confuse copper based anti-sieze compounds with high melting point grease.

    Copper based products are used to prevent components, especially those of different metals, siezing. Wheel nuts, brake mountings on cars, pedal spindles on a bike. Also used to prevent disk brake squeal in cars (applied to the back of the brake pads)

    Vehicle wheel bearings, which do get hot, often require high melting point lithium based grease.

    My bike seems to have been assembled using a maroon coloured grease. First time I took something apart I thought I'd been inadvertently bleeding