Originally Posted by
jimmuller
...he happened to show the bike to some ex-pro racer or coach or something, and was promptly told that the first thing you did on a bike to be raced was to take them off and throw them away. If you had to do any crank or BB work it costs time to take the dust caps off, time you couldn't afford. Of course those of you closer to racing than I ever was probably knew this already.
That would be true of a team mechanic in a major tour who is servicing a dozen bicycles every evening but if you're doing your own service, I'm sure you could afford the extra 30 seconds it takes to remove and install a set of caps. It takes a whole lot longer to clean out the threads if they get packed up with dirt or mud.