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I'd like to regrease my roller brakes, because it started to squeak. There is dedicated Shimano Roller Brake grease available, but I'm curious what kind of grease it is really like, what it is made from and if there is any good equivalent, substitute or something with similar composition for general usage. I know that this grease is supposed to be high-temperature-resistant and that's the main requirement, but has it another characteristics, that has to be taken into account?

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    I wouldn't mess around with brakes - its the wrong place to be saving money. Just use the right stuff.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Nov 22, 2016 at 10:03
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    @Criggie don't worry:) I will not use anything else without being convinced that equivalent will work at least as good as the original, and so I recommend to any question reader in the future. I asked partly to get to know what that grease really is, and if it is just plain ceramic grease.
    – krzyski
    Commented Nov 22, 2016 at 10:23
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    There's a question of warranty too - if you use anything else, any warranty may be voided.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Nov 22, 2016 at 18:51
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    I'd start by looking at a MSDS sheet or something. As for an alternative, I doubt you go through enough of the stuff that it makes a real cost difference.
    – Batman
    Commented Nov 22, 2016 at 21:04
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    Interesting. Not even close to conclusive, but I would guess some flavour of moly/cv grease. Cheers, @krzyski.
    – alex
    Commented Aug 28, 2017 at 4:58

7 Answers 7

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Just as a confirmation on the comments above, I found a post on a separate forum definitely recommending to use the specific manufacturer grease, with a couple of the following points (Cited here for possible link decay):

For the grease itself-

Since my original post I have found some good information about lubricating the Shimano roller brakes.

  1. Definitely use the roller brake grease available from Shimano (although it is fairly expensive), this is a demanding application due to the heat and forces generated within the brake and the lubricant is very high quality - it is a molybdenum disulphide based grease, and to me looked denser than what one usually finds say in automotive moly greases. Also it is lower viscosity so the brake will not drag and the grease can get into the braking surfaces more readily.

For application (And which indicates the poster spoke to someone at Shimano):

  1. Very important to follow the instructions that come with the grease - main point is to insert the grease tube nozzle at least 12mm into the hole otherwise the grease will not reach the actual braking surface. If you look carefully you can see the cooling disc move a little when the nozzle is in far enough as it will push against it; come back just slightly from this position so the grease flows easily.

  2. Shimano said you cannot really over do the grease as the excess will simply squeeze out and collect under the side cover. I was fortunate enough to be able to get an old brake and dismantle it - it looked to me like a rounded teaspoon or so of grease (say 10+mL) would be fine and my brake went well with this. Remember to rotate the wheel a bit while putting in the grease so it distributes evenly around inside the brake. Note that Shimano forbid dismantling of these brakes, and having done so with the old one I would say there is very little reason to anyway, and parts cannot be bought individually for repairs - still it was very interesting to see how it actually worked. The rollers (6) are not actually the brake, but push out three metal crescents that bind against the braking "drum" that is bonded to the centre of the cooling disc.

There are a couple of other points in the link, mostly just some tips about making application a bit easier. I could find absolutely nothing on a recommended substitute, which leads me to believe that the comments are correct, it's not worth it to try and find a substitute.

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    So your answer is: "There is no equivalent"? Still valuable information:)
    – krzyski
    Commented Dec 15, 2017 at 15:57
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    @krzyski - Yeah, I guess so. :)
    – JohnP
    Commented Dec 15, 2017 at 16:10
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I wouldn't use anything other than grease with the same Ingredients and Contents from SHIMANO ROLLER BRAKE GREASE MSDS. Ingredients and Contents from SHIMANO ROLLER BRAKE GREASE MSDS

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I have used Belray Assembly Lube on my BR-IM81-F roller brake. Seems to work ok so far (after about 5 miles). I only used it because of the time it would have taken for the Shimano grease to arrive. I plan to eventually replace it with the genuine grease.

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  • Interesting - please do remember to come back and give us an update on this answer when you've got some more distance in it.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 6:30
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    I have now been riding with the graphite assembly lube in my front roller brake for a couple of months. I haven't observed any adverse side-effects so far. When spinning by hand, the front wheel seems to come to a stop much sooner compared to the rear wheel which has proper grease in the brake.
    – ilya
    Commented Jun 3, 2019 at 22:11
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We used Sta-Lube Moly-Graph Grease and it seems very similar to the Shimano Grease.

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    Hi, welcome to bicycles. How much experience do you have using this as a replacement? How well did it last?
    – DavidW
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:48
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The key thing is in the answer by kuzavas (Jun 29, 2021 at 15:59) which included the table of Ingredients and Contents from SHIMANO ROLLER BRAKE GREASE MSDS. The grease contains mild abrasives, presumably to polish the mating surfaces of the brake shoes and drum. A normal grease is not a suitable replacement.

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    Hi, welcome to bicycles. This seems to be more of a comment on the other answer than a complete answer on its own. Can you suggest something that would be a replacement?
    – DavidW
    Commented Jun 13, 2023 at 11:01
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Alternatives to Shimano grease. i reckon it is the same Japanese producer for all: https://www.cyclonbikecare.com/nl/product/speed-hub-en-roller-braker-grease https://en.50factory.com/parts%20news/2.5g-roller-brake-elvedes-brake-grease.html

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    Are you sure or do you just think so? And you gave two different links here. Can you give more information on what we are seeing here for each link?
    – Ted Hohl
    Commented Apr 2 at 8:04
  • This answer seems to say that "Roller brake grease" is also made by suppliers other than Shimano, which is good to know. The unstated implication is that it still has to be a dedicated roller-brake grease, is that right?
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Apr 2 at 10:15
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I have used MoS2 from automotive greases - FEBI BILSTEIN 02582 (that costs approx 1 eur at my country) - on my bicycle and everything works well. Noise disappeared and braking is good.

Silicone grease though does not work...

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    Hi, welcome to bicycles. How long have you used this? Can you confirm there is no problem with the grease overheating in the brake?
    – DavidW
    Commented Oct 7, 2020 at 14:12
  • I have used it for several months and when brakes heats up there are also no problem (as much as I could check by braking for few seconds continuously) Of course use this grease on Your own risk.
    – Henry
    Commented Oct 12, 2020 at 7:50

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