Originally Posted by
dddd
One thing that I remember being told by a relative old-timer who was in charge of the work shop at WheelSmith in Palo Alto was that my Stronglight 93 crank tapers should never be greased.
I wasn't even there that day for any crank-related reasons and had not mentioned the cranks, but as he looked over my bike that's what he decided to tell me.
I knew that I had oiled the spindle taper upon assembly but chose to remain quiet. He seemed to be speaking from many years of actual experience working on bikes with those cranks so I respected his opinion, but as a lightweight (who spread his mileage among several bikes) I wasn't much concerned about it. I've installed model93 cranks dry on the spindle ever since though.
That's hilarious. The opposite conclusion. As the 93 cranks were really before my time I'd defer to the old timer. Most of my experience with them has been with my own bikes, not customer's. Any that I may have overhauled in the shop in the 80s would have gone back on no grease, as that was standard practice. ( I learned bike mechanics in the same area)
After some vigorous recollecting, I think I lightly greased mine because the cranks were old when I got them, and starting to get that tiny lip on them inside the crank arm tapers. I gave them a light swipe with a needle file and put the grease on it hoping to encourage reforming around the spindle without hanging up on the lip.
Really the worst outcome possible from greasing tapers is that a crank
might creak. While that annoys customers, it isn't the end of the world. It's really odd that there's so much passion that goes into this subject.