Originally Posted by
bonsai171
Personally I would suggest a little bit of lube on the tapers. Any time there is metal contacting metal, lubrication can only help, if you would like to be able to take it apart again
A friend of ours had a hitch mount on his car, and left the bike carrier in it. Over time, the metals bonded together, and no amount of persuasion would get the bike carrier off.
Dave
This is one of those cases where both sides of the argument make perfect sense to me. The other side here being that lubrication can lead to bolt over-tightening and consequent deformation of the spindle and crank (because the lubrication encourages the crank arm to slide farther onto the taper than it should at a given torque).
Personally, I split the difference: Apply a super thin film of grease to the spindle, just enough (I hope) to provide a barrier but not so much (I hope) as to promote slipperiness. I have no idea if this works.