N
Nate Knutson
Guest
Many sources say different things about whether to grease stem/steer
contact areas where both parts are either steel or aluminum. All the
manufacturers instructions I've looked at (Salsa, ITM, Thomson,
probably some others) say not to, some specifically saying it's a
safety risk. Many/most technical sources seem to be in agreement. Yet
many, many people always grease it, including many who usually seem to
know what they're doing. I grease it on my own bikes regardless of
instructions and haven't had any problems, always doing the "try
twisting it sideways really hard" test first, but yet I'm still too
skeptical to second guess instructions in this regard on other people's
bikes I'm working on. I'm slowly trying to eliminate the number of
things I'm compelled to be schizo about like this.
What's the deal? Can greasing it ever actually cause spontaneous
movement or other problems? In this kind of mechanical application,
does greasing the interface even make a difference of much more than
zero in terms of how easily it can slip, given there's enough force
holding the parts together to keep slippage from occuring when
installed without lubrication?
How do stems that have much less stem/steerer contact area than normal
enter into this? What about ti stems? Anodized steerers?
If there are some cases where you shouldn't grease it, does that mean
you need to be super cautious about degreasing it in a way that leaves
zero residue?
The same discussion can be had for the bar/stem interface. I greased
this too on my own bikes until I had some slippage on a bike with a
pretty janky stem. Haven't really wanted to mess with it since then,
even though there could have been other factors at work then.
I don't want to start a long pointless thread but this seems important
given that one camp feels it's so important for safety not to use
grease. The other thing is that not much is really gained by greasing
these interfaces in most cases, but it does help prevent corrosion of
the steerer, probably has some effect on water intruding into the
headset, and with the handlebar/stem interface can eliminate noises
(not sure if this ever applies to stem/steerer).
contact areas where both parts are either steel or aluminum. All the
manufacturers instructions I've looked at (Salsa, ITM, Thomson,
probably some others) say not to, some specifically saying it's a
safety risk. Many/most technical sources seem to be in agreement. Yet
many, many people always grease it, including many who usually seem to
know what they're doing. I grease it on my own bikes regardless of
instructions and haven't had any problems, always doing the "try
twisting it sideways really hard" test first, but yet I'm still too
skeptical to second guess instructions in this regard on other people's
bikes I'm working on. I'm slowly trying to eliminate the number of
things I'm compelled to be schizo about like this.
What's the deal? Can greasing it ever actually cause spontaneous
movement or other problems? In this kind of mechanical application,
does greasing the interface even make a difference of much more than
zero in terms of how easily it can slip, given there's enough force
holding the parts together to keep slippage from occuring when
installed without lubrication?
How do stems that have much less stem/steerer contact area than normal
enter into this? What about ti stems? Anodized steerers?
If there are some cases where you shouldn't grease it, does that mean
you need to be super cautious about degreasing it in a way that leaves
zero residue?
The same discussion can be had for the bar/stem interface. I greased
this too on my own bikes until I had some slippage on a bike with a
pretty janky stem. Haven't really wanted to mess with it since then,
even though there could have been other factors at work then.
I don't want to start a long pointless thread but this seems important
given that one camp feels it's so important for safety not to use
grease. The other thing is that not much is really gained by greasing
these interfaces in most cases, but it does help prevent corrosion of
the steerer, probably has some effect on water intruding into the
headset, and with the handlebar/stem interface can eliminate noises
(not sure if this ever applies to stem/steerer).