Maxima Assembly Grease… It’s what SRAM use.

Idly watching some official SRAM install videos (living the dream! ) and wondering what the red grease is that they use when one video had a partial view of a label… A bit of Googling and it turns out it’s this stuff.

Maxima Assembly Grease

https://maximaeurope.eu/products/assembly-grease

Never heard of it personally, I wonder if it’s any good?

Well I’ve ordered some to put on my crank set which is where I saw it being used. Not sure if it’s better than the Mobil XHP222 that I currently put on most things that rotate.

Its ok, we use it for certain applications in our workshop, have for years, but to be honest I prefer the waterproof if I only had to use 1 grease. There’s nothing that I find the waterproof is too sticky for and its water repellency is far better. The ‘Assembly’ part refers to how it wont destroy engines etc. if you use it on them as it won’t melt out, as opposed to being a grease somehow more suited to static assembly I believe. If you want something thats specific to parts that dont move against each other try the Dynamic Bike Care stuff. That said, on a SRAM crank I would use copper grease.

Well I’ve ordered some to put on my crank set which is where I saw it being used. Not sure if it’s better than the Mobil XHP222 that I currently put on most things that rotate.

Unfortunately Maxima doesn’t show a full battery of test data to demonstrate “Corrosion and water washout protection for all environments” ( https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0555/2957/0594/files/Assembly_Grease_TDS.pdf?v=1679586346 )

Mobil does for XHP222: Corrosion Preventive Properties, “Pass”, SKF Emcor Rust Test, Distilled Water, 0% and Water Washout, Loss 5%. https://www.mobil.com/en/lubricants/for-businesses/heavy-duty-lubricants/products/mobilgrease-xhp-222

That’ll do for me 🙂

I once read on here that Rocol Sapphire 2 grease is the shiznit and the same as some manfacturer or other uses, so I bought a tube instead of my usual Silkolene Pro RG2. Bloody awful, it’s like old school white lithium grease dyed blue. Don’t go there.

I have also heard that Autol Top 2000 Super Longtime grease is good, so I’ll probably try that next time I want a change. At least it has a name that reminds me of being in Bangkok.

I suspect SRAMs assembly priorities might be different to the home mechanics.  For building new bikes for sale they’re concerned about speed, convenience and price – so something super waterproof might be too difficult to clean up.  The same probably goes for their race mechanics – nothing has to actually last that long as the bikes are getting stripped and rebuilt regularly.

XHP222 being OEM Hope hub grease?

My personal favourite is that neon yellow Motorex Bike Grease 2000 / Fett 2000. I think its the same stuff as Shimano Premium grease. 850g tub for £20 will last a lifetime.

I expect SRAM also like it because it’s red like most of their stuff and looks good in the video… I’ll see what’s on the cranks that come out and go from there ..

That said, on a SRAM crank I would use copper grease.

Hmm, any particular reason and any particular brand?I thought copper grease was best used in static applications rather than moving parts. Before I install mine….

When I’ve handled recent, new Sram cranks, their splines and mounting surfaces have come covered in a honey coloured grease. Definitely not red. I’ve happily used ACF-50 anti-corrosion grease on non-moving parts. As always… happy to be corrected!

Ah yes the mating surfaces don’t move obviously, xhp 222 on the shaft (ahem) then perhaps.

Cranks did indeed come with honey coloured grease on the mating surfaces and some blue grease on the shaft itself. No red grease anywhere – just used to look good in the videos then….

Dead curious where they’re actually using it… Engine assembly grease is usually a “does one job” thing, it needs just the right amount but not too much permanence, and itneeds to play well with pretty much all common metals and seal materials which is tricky, and the oil solubility tends to take away its overall survivability. Not to mention making it a little expensive, it’s like £20 a tub for the Maxima which isn’t super pricey but it’s enough that it has to be doing something useful. Maxima’re a bit unusual, they pitch it as “assembly grease that’s actually kinda useful as an everyday basic grease” whereas most are pitched 100% at the specialist job

(which i think is mostly marketing, people like products that only do one job, we tend to assume it means they’re better at it… But engine assembly grease is so specific, hardly anyone will ever need it and most people that do will never use up a whole tub in their life. Like, I got some to do a rebuild and probably used less than a tenth of the tub. So using it up as a general use grease could actually be pretty useful compered to “sitting on a shelf for the next 40 years”)

I can definitely see it being useful in some specific jobs- like, maybe the oil solubility is good for forks? People have had issues with loose grease blocking air transfer ports in rockshox solo airs frinstance. But then forks tend to want the slipperiest of grease, which this is not. Really not sure what advantage it could bring to bike “assembly” jobs like crank-on-bearing or frame bolts, compared to a regular waterproof grease?

Here’s the video where I saw it… 1:17.

Notice they also have Park Tools hex without the “Park Blue”

Yeah that makes no sense.