Review: Road.cc - Peaty's Bicycle Assembly Grease - 8out of 10

Road.cc has reviewed the Bicycle Assembly Grease and has given it a very high 8/10. Heres what they had to say: 

A good all-purpose grease is a workshop essential, and Peaty’s Bicycle Assembly Grease is ideal for modern bicycle applications.

‘Peaty’ is, for the non-mountain bike savvy, Steve Peat, former World Champion downhiller and Sheffield legend. Since retirement, he’s been involved in clothing brand Royal Racing and now Peaty’s – his range of cleaning products, tubeless tyre paraphernalia and lubricants.

For anyone not still messing about with loose-balled bottom brackets and headsets, and with the noble exception of Shimano’s stubborn adherence to cup-and-cone wheel bearings, the main uses for grease in modern bike maintenance is in stopping metal parts from getting stuck together. In practice, that mainly means when installing cartridge bearings and cranks, and on bolt threads. You might also want it for steel or aluminium seatposts. A smear on cable nipples stops them getting stuck inside shifters.

Peaty’s claims its Bicycle Assembly Grease is ideal for just these applications. There’s some science posted up on the website, to explain why it’s been formulated with ‘synthetic esters’. The advantage of these esters over regular synthetic oils is, Peaty’s explains, their ability both to stick to metals and to flow easily. These properties are both thanks to their polarised molecules, which both attract them to the metals and repel them from each other. For reassurance, I dipped into an article published in ‘Lube: the European Lubricants Industry Magazine’ (I never miss an issue); and it says, ‘Negatively charged oxygen from ester chemical function will bind to positively charged sites of metal surfaces.’ So that’s all right then.

Science out of the way, let’s get greasy. I’ve been using this on all the bikes I serviced over this busy summer and there’s been nothing to suggest this isn’t excellent all-purpose grease. It’s medium-thick, spreads thinly and evenly and is very smooth. It’s easy to clean up any excess with a citrus degreaser.

It’s not easy to test longevity and resistance to bad weather over a six-week summer test period. So far, though, it’s stayed in place in brake and mech pivots – even in those exposed and vulnerable lower headset bearings. Peaty’s says the grease has high resistance to being washed out and it’s certainly thick enough to do a decent job in wheel hub bearings; but if you like ultimate protection where seals might be bypassed, you might like to investigate marine-grade greases.

Most greases seem to be sold by volume rather than weight, as Peaty’s has chosen to do, so price comparisons aren’t easy. However, as a marker, Finish Line’s Premium Grease for Bicycles (link is external) has a full retail price of £29.99 for 457g, so a quick calculation shows that’s 6 1/2p per gram compared with Peaty’s 10p per gram.

While chain lubricants drop onto the road.cc review desk on a weekly basis, we don’t see many grease products. You have to go back to 2016 for Shaun’s favourable review of Green Oil’s Ecogrease, which currently costs £9.99 for 200ml; though I have no idea how much a millilitre of grease actually weighs.

Kudos points go to the tube being made from recycled materials, but on the downside I couldn’t get the thread on the neck to work with any of the grease applicators lying around in my workshop (you need an M15 thread apparently), which was a bit of a hindrance when trying to squeeze grease into inaccessible pivotsor wheel hubs.

One little surprise was the minty fresh aroma. Don’t mix it up with your toothpaste. 

Verdict: 8/10