Tyre greasing seems to have fallen from favour.In the good old days before racing became a slave to commercialism,riders would often help each other out by greasing each other's tyres.No thanks were expected...riders just did it quietly out of a spirit of sportsmanship.That sort of cameraderie doesn't exist anymore,more's the pity.
IMHO,the riders just don't seem to enjoy themselves as much as we used to,Helmut.Do you recall all the jokes and stunts we used to pull on each other? What wonderful days they were! I'll never forget the roars of happy laughter in the peloton when Eddie flipped his bidon into my back wheel causing me to crash into the crowd.Even the old lady whose leg was broken laughed! Sure I had to spit a few teeth out and my shoulder was shattered...but it was all in the spirit of fun! And eye-gouging! How can I forget the playful way Miguel and I exchanged a few joyful eye-gouges on Stage 10 of the 1975 Vuelta! I felt so honoured that I haven't washed that eye since! And what about goosing? There hasn't been any decent goosing since Lance goosed Marco over Mont Ventoux in 2000. Sadly,riders don't give that sort of assistance to their brothers in racing these days. Now it's all EPO and steroids. In my day,10 pints of bitter and a handful of bennies before each stage worked well for us,and as for all this fancy nutrition....a bucket of frites gave us all the carbs we needed,thank you!
But I digress from the topic of greasing. Just like skiers,we all had our special formulae for different conditions. In the hot and dusty conditions of the Giro,for example,I used KY on my tyres. It was readily available in Italy, (every bar had a display stand of the stuff prominently displayed),prevented cracks in the tyre rubber and very versatile. I used it quite liberally on my seatpost.
Aaaaahh....the good old days.....