Any question answered...

Greases are thickened mineral oils.
The thickening agent is normally a soap formed by the neutralisation of castor oil with an alkali, typically lithium hydroxide for 'Lithium grease' and sodium hydroxide for 'Sodium grease'.

Mineral oils are approximately 3% of a barrel of oil.
Since we decided to stop sending clouds of acid rain into Continental Europe & Scandinavia,
by removing sulphur from crude oil at the refinery, mineral oils exhibit less lubricity.
It turns out the sulphur-containing chemicals in crude oil were very good lubricating agents.
Pump diesel retains its lubricity due to the addition of bio-diesel, which is very lubricious.

Grease chemists & manufacturers have had to incorporate additives to improve the lubricity of modern mineral oils.

Grease containing Molybdenum Disulphide, (MoS2), have an additional lubricating mechanism.
MoS2 exists,at the molecular level, as sheets that are easily displaced across each other.
If a MoS2 containing grease is placed between two metal surfaces that are moving relative to each other, the 'lumps' of MoS2 will be crushed/squashed down to fill any surface imperfections,where it will be electrostatically attracted to the metallic surfaces, and remain improving the 'slip' between the contacting surfaces.

In a previous employment, (by a company that manufactured MoS2 dispersions), I was told by people I was meant to believe, that the original Ford Sierra was manufactured with an intentionally under machined gear box.
The factory fill gear box oil contained 3% MoS2, to ensure that by the time of the 500 mile dealer service, the car owner would have a perfectly functional gear box, (assuming all the metal shards were flushed out).

csb
I'm still not throwing out my tub of lithium grease though.
It's an investment.

where is @EdwardZ ?

Where is Primo Levi?

I can't find the TDS for V220AD where it indicates it has an MoS2 content? Got a link for this @mdcc_tester ?

Other greases to consider for the lulz:

S3 V460D and V460XD has 5% MoS2 but is twice as thick at 40C at 460CSt, compared to V220AD at 220CSt.

Shell Aeroshell Grease 33MS seems to be interesting, with a very low viscosity of ~14CSt at 40C, 5% MoS2 content, and lithium fortified. There is a water separation stat available on the TDS of 33MS but I haven't checked it against the testing and methodology of V220/V460.

Edit: just realised I'm a muppet, 14CSt is very flowy at 40C - it's mainly used for low temperature/high altitude applications - think 0C to -40C and below where it starts to thicken.

Not sure how they'd know what's in my bag. I've been through Swiss customs at GVA a few hundred times in the last 10 years, and I've never been stopped once, and I'm pretty sure they're not going to be tipped off about the contents of my hand luggage by security at Luton.

I can't find the TDS for V220AD where it indicates it has an MoS2 content? Got a link for this @mdcc_tester ?

Page 6 of the brochure

Someone posted the name of the brand that does generic plain black bog standard ahead stems on eBay for £10-ish. Thought it was Kalloy or System-Ex maybe but doesn't seem to be...

Anyone know what I'm on about?

Yeah, but £2 for 20g vs. ~£10 for 500g from your local motor factor

I got mine from Amazon, £6.49 and no need to leave the house.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004HPER6M

Any awesome forum people have a £5.00 CRC voucher I could have please? I need some new tyres!

Why doesn't the sun (as in our friendly local self-sustaining fusion reaction) have a scientific name? Just seems a bit "that thing over there" when it could be called something like Megatron-85-4 mkii or something...

You can call it Sol if you want to be latin about it

It's the sun, or sol or whatever, it was worshiped and thought to be a god by people for millenia before any real idea of what it was emerged, those sort of old names stick around. All the other stars that weren't also spotted ages ago and given a name as part of a constellation have scientific names based on either who or what spotted them and how many have been spotted by them or it.

Snotter Centaurii XIII.

That works.

What doth life?

Life doth prevail.

You can call it Sol if you want to be latin about it

Sol sounds more Jewish than Latin :-)

Helios is acceptable too.

Other greases to consider

The grease thread is at https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/257349/

Because scientific names are used to distinguish one thing from another thing, whether it's astronomical nomenclature or Linnaean names for creatures. Since there's, at present, only one star around which the planet the whole of humanity lives on rotates, there's no real need to draw that distinction.

Also, "the sun" seems to serve pretty well as a name. As far as I know there's no other star called "Sun 2663f: Electric Boogaloo" to cause confusion.

Sun 2663g: Electric Boogaloo is a bit of a problem though.

Fair enough. Swiss customs were very keen to see if they could extract duty when I arrived in Zurich with a Pinarello in a bike box.

Swiss customs were very keen to see if they could extract duty

#Euph

Ah, I think I'll be a bit less obvious than that. Mind you, I've never had any problems with bike boxes at GVA, and I've gone into GVA a few times with a bike box. The Swiss Romande and Genfer chaps are obviously more chilled than the Bernese Oberlanders up at Zurich.