paulw63•1d agoTop Commenter

Used to just grease bottom bracket threads until a shop vet told me otherwise

Honestly I spent my first three years as a mechanic just slapping grease on bottom bracket threads before install. Then this old timer at a shop in Portland watched me do it and stopped me. He said grease can actually cause a carbon frame to crack if you overtighten because it reduces friction too much. So now I use anti-seize compound on alloy frames and a very thin layer of grease on steel ones. Has anyone else had a shop change the way you do a basic task like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

theawest1d ago

Same mechanic taught me I'd been greasing my seatpost wrong for years lol

kevin_martin1d ago

Hang on though... I actually think greasing seatposts is one of those things that gets overcomplicated. Just a thin layer on the part that goes into the frame, nothing fancy. If you're slathering it on thick or putting it on the clamp area, yeah that's asking for trouble. But the basic idea of keeping it from seizing up is still sound, I've seen too many posts corrode into frames to skip it entirely. Maybe your mechanic was just being picky about the technique, not the concept itself.