Why oh why?

[Johan Bornman]

Why oh why do some mechanics smear everything inside a bike full of grease? Steerers, BB tupperware, crank axles, the lot. Huge  big gobs of grease goes on there only to trap rubbish and annoy the next sucker to work on the bike.

 

 

 

Please stop it. It is wasteful, unneccessary and a total waste of time - twice.

 

 

[gummibear]

That's still clean though.

[TNT1]

 

That's still clean though.

 

  JB is showing how to spread the grease evenly before re-assembly

 

[dirtrider]

Ok I am going to say this only once ........ AGREE !!!

[Bike Mob]

at least that center piece of plastic wont rust now... 

[techguy]

Ya I have it all the time! A 90l parrafin washer get clogged up lekker quick with all the crap I clean off bikes...

[AndreZA]

I want to know what the piece of plastic is for.

[dirtrider]

To put lots of grease on !!

[TNT1]

 

I want to know what the piece of plastic is for.

 

Silly, to smear the grease on, duh

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Well you saw my crankarm which was already dirty after a 10km ride and that was the day after collecting the bike!

[GoLefty!!]

No it's because;

 

- they charge you for labour (more time needed to smear grease)

- charge you for grease, the more they use the more money they make

- they want to discourage you from trying to work on it yourself bymaking it ichy

[techguy]

the more grease the better... the bearings do nothing its the peice of plastic that does all the hard work...

 

the plastic peice is there to try and keep cr@p out of the bearings...

[BeegMig]

So...

What should be greased?

Wheel cups,

headset?

[Johan Bornman]

So...

What should be greased?

Wheel cups' date='

headset?

[/quote']

 

Very few things, actually.

 

Off the top of my head: cup and cone wheel bearings, cup and cone headset bearings, cup and cone BB bearings.

 

Pedal bearings (if cup and cone type), derailer pulley axles and....the odd spindle here and there when brakes etc are disassembled.

 

Modern bikes have cartridge bearings in the headset, BB, pedals, wheel axles and pulleys and thus require no grease.  DIY mechanics may want to revive dry cartridge bearings by pulling the seal off and squirting some grease in there but pro's should rather just replace the bearings since their time cost as much as a new bearing.

 

I recently saw a circle of luminius green grease on the bottom of a fork crown. This grease sat outside the cartridge bearing and bottom seal and crown race. It just sat there, ready to trap grit.

 

It seems to be that the "full service" nowadays requires so little work on cartridge-bearing bikes that some people feel they have to justify their fee by gratuituously greasing everything.

 

 

 

 

[Schwynn]

So that's why they're called Grease monkeys!