Waterproof Grease

For years, I have preferred to use water resistant grease in places like bottom bracket bearings or wheel bearings. Bike components usually aren't well sealed against water intrusion, so marine bearing or automotive wheel bearing grease will do a better job protecting bearings from corrosion.

Below is an example of poorly sealed front hub bearings that were ridden in wet conditions. They were not lubricated with marine bearing grease:

Obviously these won't roll very well anymore, so new ball bearings were necessary. 

Additionally, I would avoid using white lithium grease. I've seen plenty of worn out bearing surfaces that were packed full of plain white lithium grease. It has no anti-wear or extreme pressure additives, so it's not suitable for bikes.

Discount Velox Tape

Back to bike stuff! In the past, I preferred to use Velox cloth rim tape to cover the spokes on the inside of a rim, especially for double walled rims. My local bike shop doesn't carry it anymore, and they want a bit too much money for their plastic rim strips. As an alternative, I found a 25' roll of this 5/8" wide woven cloth at Menards for $3:

I cut a length off the roll after wrapping it around the rim, then sprayed one side with contact adhesive:

Now this cloth tape should work similarly to Velox, although it will probably be more difficult to remove later on if needed. That can be a problem for future me. Also, it's slightly thicker, making it harder to mount a tire. So it's not an ideal replacement, but it's good enough for me. Cheers!