While doing some fork work at the weekend, it occurred to me that I don’t own any of the Fox-recommended “Slick Honey” grease for smearing all over the internal surfaces during rebuild.

For those of you who do their own fork maintenance, what do you use? Should I be ponying up for the real stuff or is there a good alternative?

I just use motorcycle fork oil

I just use motorcycle fork oil

I probably should have been a bit clearer, actually. Fox forks require three different lubricants:

1. Lower fluid (20wt “gold” on recent forks)
2. Fox Float Fluid (the mysterious blue stuff that goes in the top to seal the air cartridge)
3. Slick Honey (a semi-hard grease – a little like vaseline, from what I can tell)

The first is probably quite exchangeable with similar weight motorcycle fluid. The second appears quite specific (it’s a thick blue gloop). In my case, it’s the third one that I’m talking about…

https://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/45222/products/buzz-slick-honey-grease.aspx
(£40 a tub! More expensive than my wife’s hand cream, and that’s saying something!)

Yup – and altho I don’t have fox forks all my forks are serviced using motorcycle fork oil – its designed for the purpose.

IIRC the fox stuff is just some other product rebranded but IMO its not needed. It might stay in place a little better than oil but thats all. You could just get some generic grease of a type that won’t affect the seals – ordinary grease might.

I use sram butter for the same. Properly available in the uk (which slick honey didn’t appear to be, hence the astronomical price) and i figured if it’s good enough for the same job in a rockshox assembly it should be fine for for my fox stuff.

Can’t see them making this stuff themselves. The MSDS sheet can be seen here

Made by Slickoleum. Google reveals several alternatives.

I use sram butter for the same.

Perfect. That opened up a few options, including “Stendec Easy Glide” which
also seems to do the trick. I’ll order one of these.

I got some RSP Slick Kick which seems to be the same stuff:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008HDCQTK

Apparently it’s the same grease used by TF Tuned*

Also fairly expensive but do you really need a massive tub of it? I only use a tiny amount each time (but then I have cheapy forks and only use it on the wiper seals).

You can get a tub for approx €40: https://www.bike24.com/p2106635.html

*[Citation needed]

Edit: 1 fork service and 2 dropper services later – I still have 99% of the tube left.

Thanks, and no I only need a tiny amount for the handful of fork services I do each year. I suspect that a tube like that is close to a lifetime’s supply for me 🙂

I use red rubber grease. Got a wee tin of flea bay for £2. Seems to work for me, dont know if I should be using it in my forks but not had any issues thus far.

I use the Manitou Prep M, its about £12.00 for 180 grams.

Molykote 55 and Motul 7.5 fork oil in my Marzocchi’s.

Stendec grease is what you need, about £12 but it’s been harder to get hold of recently CRC seem to have stopped selling it. SRAM butter is more expensive but cheaper than the fox stuff. All does the same job.

RSP Ultra Slick here too from TF for servicing Boxxers/Pikes etc does the same in Fox. 50ml goes a long way and it’s pretty good for servicing freewheels too.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

Thought Slick Honey, Sram Butter and Slickoleum were all the same thing?
I’m sure I read that SRAM butter was slickoleum.

KS do a post lube which is very thin/light which goes underneath the collar on KS dropper posts, and is available in a small tub – think it was about £10. May be similar in nature.

checking in so I can record these recommendations.
I plumped for a small tube of Slick Honey a while back, which does seem rather good in use – but i’d happily try a cheaper/easier to source alternative for future.

I didn’t mention, but while re-assembling my son’s forks at the weekend and I got to the “apply slick honey” stage, I just slapped on whatever grease I happened to have in the garage. I’ll have them apart later in the year anyway, so will do a proper job then 🙂

I use red rubber grease. Got a wee tin of flea bay for £2. Seems to work for me, dont know if I should be using it in my forks but not had any issues thus far.

I’ve got a tin of this in the garage and it’s about the stickiest lube I’ve ever seen. I’m not at all sure it would be a good substitute for the various lubes mentioned above. I did consider it though… 🙂

year. I suspect that a tube like that is close to a lifetime’s supply for me

That reminds me, the tub of Slick Honey I bought when I lived in the US in 1997 has nearly run out 🙂

I use the stendec easy glide on foxes and rockshox. Its great

Many of these corporate businesses go to great lengths to hide the formulation of simple things, lubricants and tyres being good examples. The electronics industry are also dab hands at the same trick! The aim is to get the average consumer to refer to things via brand names and their proprietary terminology.

It’s a grease (oil and soap). It’s Calcium Stearate grease with an NGLI consistency of 2. Thicker Calcium Stearate NGLI 3 greases are easy to get hold of and cheap as chips as they should be. Calcium Stearate greases are the cheapest available. Calcium Stearate NGLI 2 greases (I assume there are less applications for it) are not as common as the thicker variant.

Used this for years with no problems

https://www.tftuned.com/rsp-ultra-slick-grease/p2771

I went with the same approach as I used for red rubber grease- I bought the biggest tub (from Billys, who’ve closed but I’m sure you can find it elsewhere) for about £25 on the basis that it’ll last me my entire life.

Email your address and I’ll send you a dab.
I bought a tube of slick honey and so far have done one fork service in two years.

‘Slick Honey’ & rest of them are all fancy names for none fancy stuff that sound different but probably aren’t.
I used to have a garage/petrol station & dealt with these nice folk from Gateshead….

https://www.gblubricants.co.uk/about-us

They have chemists who can analyse stuff & make an equivalent. (Although maybe not in just tiny amounts for practical purposes)
I’m still using a big tub of their waterpump grease for just about everything that needs grease & never had an issue.

But I hate paying over the odds anyway.

Stendec grease

Stendec grease and fork oil here.

Stendec. Smells, feels, and looks suspiciously like Ye Olde Pace RC7S…

Stendec. Smells, feels, and looks suspiciously like Ye Olde Pace RC7S…

Oh bloody hell, I’ve got a massive tub of that in the garage somewhere from my old RC35s. I’d completely forgotten about it!

I’ll have a fish this evening….

The best of stuff, used for everything.

I would agree, normally, but fork sliders need extremely slippy lube and I’m not sure that thick grease like this is ideal. (I’ve got a similarly big pot of Lucas grease in the garage, but instinct told me it wasn’t the right stuff for this particular use)

It’s always a little hard to cut through and fit what really matters (apparently, proper Fox Float Fluid is a must) and what doesn’t really (lower fluid is just a specific weight of motorcycle oil – anything will do if it’s the right spec). Slider lube is one of those odd things that I can’t quite decide which camp it fits into…

I’d be very surprised if the slightly higher coefficient of friction of the Mobil would be noticeable in the slightest on fork seals tbh. Sounds a bit like the snake oilesque low stiction SKF seals that some folks fit.

Edit – I don’t have any fox suspension either.

apparently, proper Fox Float Fluid is a must

is this the Float fluid that gets flushed out of the foam rings by the lower leg oil as the fork compresses? Not owned Fox for a while but seem to remember they changed the recommended oils for forks and binned Float off the list at one point.

is this the Float fluid that gets flushed out of the foam rings by the lower leg oil as the fork compresses? Not owned Fox for a while but seem to remember they changed the recommended oils for forks and binned Float off the list at one point.

The float fluid goes into the air cylinders in both the shocks and forks and (I think) provides the air-seal to keep the pressure in fork/shock. Both forks and shocks use the same stuff, so while it’s eye-wateringly expensive, you only need to buy one pot of it to service both. For the shocks, you need to replace it every time you crack open the air can. For the forks, you can remove the lowers and service the damper oil and seals without needing it.