Quick: Name a few greases that are safe for free hubs. If anything came to mind at all, it was probably Phil Wood or Shimano’s Special Grease.
According to NixFrixShun developer Joshua Simonds, freehub-safe greases are tough to make because it’s in very tight spaces, so it can’t change properties drastically or it could cause the freehub to fail. And it has to deal with moisture, oxidation and contamination, and it can’t creep out of where you put it. Basically, it needs to be incredibly stable.
Challenge accepted….
Simonds wasn’t planning on making a grease to go along with his chain lube (which is amazing), but Boyd Johnson requested something special for his new Eternity hubs. So he used his vast chemistry know-how and created the NFS Race Grease. It’s good for virtually any hub, particularly those with a standard pawl mechanism. For Chris King’s ring drive and DT Swiss ATR ratchets, he recommends using his chain lube because you need something really light. He says you could use the grease here too, so long as you apply it very lightly.
It’s not just for freehubs, either. Simonds says you can use it anywhere else you’d normally use grease. But, he admits that it’d be overkill using something like this to, say, coat a headset race before dropping the bearings in. But, if you want just one tub of grease laying around that’s good for anything, this is it. It’s also red, so you know it’s fast!
NixFrixShun will sell it in 4oz tubs for $20. The little 1oz maintenance tubes will ship with the Boyd wheels and aren’t sold separately.
