Lube Me Up
 

I'm a newbie to bike maintenance & mechanics. I am assembling a bike piece by piece and I need to know what lubricants are appropriate for pretty much all the various components. Would someone be kind enough to tell me what I can use Phil Wood Grease or Shimano Workshop Grease (I've already purchases these) for? What else do I need? I'm just going to list the parts I'm in question about:

1) chain ring bolts
2) handlebar
3) seat post
4) v-brakes--where they are screwed onto the bike frame
5) wheels--where they attatch to the frame
6) rear casette--the rings themselves AND where they attatch to the hub (hope that makes sense)
7) brake levers--the various screws and such that keep them 1 piece (I dissassembled both in order to paint part)

Thank you for your time.

It depends on a number of things. Most threads on a bicycle should be lubricated with grease simply to stop them corroding together. The same is true for the seatpost.

No lubricant is required anywhere on the handlebar, although a handlebar stem (the part that attaches to the fork and clamps the handlebars) should be greased where it's inside the fork steerer if it's a quill type.

If you have a thread-on freewheel, the threads which attach it to the hub should be greased. If you have a splined cassette system, you might want to grease the lockring threads.

V-brake bosses should be greased where the brakes actually slide onto them, because although most modern V-brakes use an internal bushing rather than using the brake boss as the bearing surface for the pivot, they can still corrode onto the bosses.

With quick-release wheels, the skewer should be greased where it passes through the axle. With nutted axles, the threads should be greased, and I tend to put grease between the axle nut and the washer underneath it, to make it easier to tighten the nut.

Thank you Airburst. Will my Phil Wood Grease or Shimano Workshop Grease be appropriate for all the areas you mentioned?

Yes, but both of those are probably more expensive than you need. A lot of people just use a decent marine bearing grease on their bikes, which is a lot cheaper and works just as well.

indeed, I have an ancient tube of Phil Wood grease, and I have a grease gun with generic green Marine Waterproof Bearing Grease. I can't tell them apart.


pretty much anything threaded that you're reassembling, you put a light coat of grease on the threads, then wipe up any excess after assembling this includes the threads on the handlebar clamps (but NO grease on the handlebar clamping surfaces!)