Originally Posted by
redtires
Well, while I agree with you in part, I also believe that some shops simply won't do this. Case in point, I bought this bike on a very good closeout deal from Performance...I know that they are a high volume store and are not in the "small bike shop" mentality (although I suppose they could be if they wanted to). If I had bought this from a shop the primarily deals in very high end bikes and builds, then I would be rather shocked to see this condition on a new bike.
In my particular situation, I was a professional mechanic for over 12 years and can easily do all of this and I KNOW it's done right. Honestly, the post is designed to be an alert to those who don't know about things like this. But, to completely validate your feedback (one because your right, and two, because your a respected person here on BF)....taking it back to the shop is a COMPLETELY legitimate thing to do and whatever shop you buy from should take care of something like this. Especially if your garage is not full of bike tools or your not keen on taking apart your BB, hubs, head set, derailleur pulleys, chain... well, you get the idea.
You are making a mountain out of a mole hill. The spindle fits so tightly into the cartridge bearings of the bottom bracket that any grease applied to the spindle is likely to get wiped off during installation. Slathering it with grease at the cartridge bearing/spindle interface isn't going to accomplish much other than providing something for dirt to stick to. The amount of grease needed to prevent corrosion is vanishingly small. Even the lack of grease on the end at the crank arm/spindle interface isn't that big of a deal, although I'd be more concerned about that than grease at the bearings.
Originally Posted by
Airburst
No, it can lead to the spindle seizing into the bearings due to corrosion.
I saw something similar on a BMX bike at the co-op, a local shop had put the spindle in without greasing a few months previously. I couldn't pound the bloody thing out with a lumphammer...
The owner used the excuse to get a nice new frame, since the press-in BB bearings were shot and we obviously couldn't get them out. Moral of the story: grease the effing spindle!
The kind of corrosion you are talking about doesn't sound like 'normal' service duty. I'd suspect that the bike had been ridden in water and/or a salty environment. Grease on the spindle wouldn't have been too effective in those situations.
I also have to ask how you know that the spindle wasn't greased before install? If you couldn't pound it out with a hammer, how did you inspect the interface? Like I said above, the fit is close enough to wipe off almost all traces of grease put on the spindle.