Stans BioBased Grease & Bike Wash

 NOTE: Stan's sent the Biobased Bike Care Products, Stan's Exo-Core valve stems, and Stans DART tool for review to Guitar Ted Productions at no charge. GTP is not being paid, nor bribed for this post and all opinions are Guitar Ted's.

Recently Stan's sent over a suite of BioBased products for me to test out. You can check out the overview of the products HERE.  In this post I am going to go over two of the products sent. The BioBased Grease and Bike Wash. First up, the grease.

BioBased Grease: Grease is a weird product for many cyclists to even consider. Unless you do your own maintenance, and unless that includes getting deep into things, grease is probably the least of your concerns. However; ALL cyclists should have a tube, tub, or container of bicycle grease around. This could be automotive grease, but there are specific formulas for cycling use that make a bit more sense. 

You may say, "But I don't get that deep into mechanics, so I don't need grease." I would ask you, "Do you ever unthread, or thread on anything on your bicycle?" Water bottle cage bolts, suspension pivots, seat post binders, and anything threaded should have grease on their threads. (That or thread locking compound)

This is because you will want to maybe unthread bolts down the road, or take a seat post out, let's say. Grease will make this not only easier, but in many cases, a possibility. Ungreased, dry threads have a tendency to rust, or even worse, experience galvanic corrosion, which can literally make things next to impossible to take apart. So, yes - You do need grease!

NOTE: If you are installing titanium parts or bolts, you should consider using an anti-seize compound such as Finish Line's  Anti-Seize. Grease won't do the best job in cases where titanium touches steel or aluminum. 

Now, not all grease is created equal, as hinted at above, so how does this Stan's grease stack up? Having been a mechanic for 30+ years I can not tell you how much grease I have used in my life. Gallons of the stuff, more than likely. I've used several types over the years, and I think I can speak with some authority on what is "good" and what is "not-so-good" in terms of grease for your bicycle. Let's take a look at a little experiment I did, and then I will get on with my view of Stan's BioBased grease. 

Grease viscosity test

 So, what I did for a test was to put a dollop of grease on a paper towel, stick a wooden toothpick in it, and see which grease was thick enough to hold up the toothpick and which was not. You can see in the image above what happened.

So, what does this prove? What can we draw from this? Since I have used grease on all sorts of things, including automobile hubs and bearings, here's my take on what you want to look for in a grease and why different greases are good for different applications. Then I will dissect what is up with Stan';s grease. 

• High Viscosity Grease: The Pedro's SynLube and the Park Tool's grease, (a mechanic's standard for years in the cycling world), are on the thicker end of the spectrum here. These are excellent for bearings, or whenever you want a long-lasting protective film between the elements and the part you are greasing. Use for bottom bracket installs, bearings, and seat posts.
  
• Medium Viscosity Grease: The Tri-Flow is what I would call a "medium-viscosity" grease. It isn't as thick as Park's or Pedro's, but this is a fine grease for a racer to pack bearings with for less resistance but still have a modicum pf protection. I generally use Tri-Flow grease for water bottle bolts and the like. 
• Low-Viscosity Grease: Stan's falls into this category. It is even less sticky and thick than Tri-Flow grease, which I found pretty shocking. I would not think this grease would be great for things like wheel bearings, for instance, unless you were going for a PR on an indoor track, or something like this. 

Final Verdict: The Stan's grease is of such low viscosity that it is almost watery. I just do not see this as an over-all, everyday grease for a wide variety of uses. This grease would probably be okay for parts you want to have move against each other freely and which won't see anything but dry conditions usage. In fact, it seems only a step or two thicker than some "wet lubes" I've used for chains. A very narrow, specific use grease which most cyclists probably will not need. I'd recommend Park grease over this for a general purpose use.

BioBased Bike Wash:

The bike wash is an interesting product. On the instructions it asks the user to spritz the part being cleaned with water, then to spray on the Bike Wash product. After that, it says to rinse the bike or part with water. I found this to be odd.

I decided to see what would happen if you used the Bike Wash like most any other bike wash product I have come in contact with. Directly spraying it on a bike, or on a rag to then wipe onto a bike, I found the product to have a bit of a soap-like feel. So, perhaps this water application first is necessary. I tried that next.

The water first, then Bike Wash second showed up as a bit of a soapy, foamy liquid, and it cleans just fine. Then a spritz of water to rinse got the soapy film off. I guess this is a fine procedure, but it begs a question: Why buy this when you can use dish soap at home in a similar manner?

Final Verdict: I've no knocks on how BioBased Bike Wash works. It does a good job of general purpose cleaning. But when I look at other bike wash products they are a one-application cleaner in most cases. Products like Bike Lust from Pedros, or Muc-Off's wash products do not require a three-step procedure.

I find BioBased Bike Wash a hard product to recommend when I can mix up a spray bottle of Dawn dish soap, and use a bucket of lukewarm water to do basically the same thing. Again, no knocks on Bike Wash's performance, but it seems to me to be an unnecessary product and it does nothing novel.