? for bike mechanics

No.

I'm not a mechanic, but no, I've not applied grease.  It should slide on the hub pretty easily.  Then, just oil the chain a little and it will go on the cassette too.  I don't think you need grease.  Some might say it is to help get the lockring and cogs off later...that may be true...but I don't bother

Yes, a trace amount of grease can go on the cassette lockring so it can be removed in the future.

I grease the spline portion where the cassette attaches to, just a thin coating.

No grease on the splines, but a thin coating on the threads of the lock ring to prevent it from sticking.

To clean the cassette, take the cassette off and let it soak in degreaser over night, then give it a good scrubbing, rinse and let dry completely. This will give the longest possible life of the cassette and won't risk getting the degreaser in the freehub body.

Recipe for caked on baked on to the splines and potential wearing out of the freehub body over time.  Not usually recommended in my experience.

of course you grease the splines, why wouldn't you? Use a light grease (if you mtb, suspension grease is the right weight). Also grease the lockring threads, normal thread grease for that.

here's an easy way to remember what surfaces to grease: metal never touches metal dry. Ever.

Hmmm, who'd of thunk a mechanic wouldn't know what to do ...........

I've never greased the splines or the lockring, I just make sure everything's clean. Never had a problem in 15 years.

Do you grease the stem where it contacts the fork? The handlebar and stem? Saddle rails and seatpost? Chainrings and crank arms?

There are some areas where some anti-seize is necessary, for example an aluminum seatpost in a steel frame.

You should know better. The shade tree mechanics always know best.

I'm trying to follow your line of reasoning: your belief is, if I'm understanding correctly is that a lubricant is going to wear out a metal surface faster than dry metal pressing against it. Your support for this is based on what a bike shop wrench told you, I'm guessing. I'm sure that wrench believes himself to be an enginner (most do, inexplicably), but rest assured, he is not. He probably hasn't even finished high school, if the shops in Maryland are typical of wherever you are.


Dry fitting metal parts is never advised by the machinist's handbook. It's not written specifically for bicycles, it does cover standard practices for mechanical assembly. For whoever was asking, yes, a good mechanic greases metal seatposts, metal steerer tubes and saddle rails, and metal handlebars. 99% of the time those parts creak it's because they weren't greased.

I make sure that the parts are free of uneven metal edges and make sure the bolts have some loc-tite on them and are torqued properly. Never had a problem with creaking unless the part developed a crack (had some handlebars and cranks do that). I do keep in mind what types of metal are touching though (titanium and aluminum in particular).

You might want to know who you're talking about before you start saying Daremo's advice is second hand knowledge from a high school kid. I'll let him speak for himself.

As for me. I spent 10 years as an adult as a mechanic in 4 different shops all over the united states. All of the service managers/master mechanics I worked under had at least 10 years as bicycle mechanics with some having up to 35 years.

It is my opinion and the opinion of the highly qualified mechanics I trained under that 1. greasing the splines is totally unnecessary. 2. Sand and grit stick to grease and create a sanding paste like substance that will wear your freehub body faster then if there was no lubricate. Hence the reason for dry lubes for chains.

I don't know how many cassettes you've removed and installed. I've done a fair few. The only times I have had issues are with inexpensive cassettes on aluminum freehub bodies and riders with lots of power. The aluminum splices become deformed so that the teeth of the cogs don't line up with the spines and it becomes a real PITA to remove the cassette. It usually involves removing the screws that hold the cassette together if they are accessible and removing each cog individually. In this instance applying a lubricant to the splines prior to installation would not have helped. Higher end cassettes do not suffer from this because the cogs are mounted to a carrier that runs the full length of the freehub body so each cog is not individually gripping the freehub body when power is applied.

ok, my qualifications are I'm a mechanical engineer with 14 years dealing a lot with mechanical assemblies of vehicles that operate in harsh and dusty environments (bikes are not subject to harsh environments, many I've dealt with in the bike industry don't understand this). I've also been riding and doing all my own maintenance for... longer than cassette hubs have existed.

You never dry fit splines. Sure, sometimes it's unnecessary, but you yourself pointed out situations it would help. I'd like to see a picture of a freehub that was worn out by grease, because I don't believe it could happen. It's a tight fit, the grease isn't flowing (unlike lubricant on a chain), grease between a freehub spline and a cog provides a barrier to grit getting in, there is no way grease could facilitate it.

I've seen plenty of mechanics with a decade of experience do things wrong. These aren't complicated machines, and they don't have unique mechanical assembly requirements that would supersede general best-practices. I've never met a mechanic that even owns a copy of the machinist's handbook; that's pathetic.

I shouldn't even bother ........ do what you want, it's your bike.  I'll build them the way I've always done it.

Let's just suffice it to say I've torn down and replaced more free hubs than most people have even had the experience to look at ......... I'm a 38 year old architect with a Master's degree who was not only a well respected bike mechanic for over 5 years but also a military trained aircraft mechanic before that ....... NOT barely out of high school.

And there are some really good shops in MD where the mechanics have a MINIMUM of 4 or 5 years of experience with high end stuff.  Some even with people that have over 15 years in that same shop.

So to summarize for the OP: Opinions vary in this matter and people have been successful over the years with and without grease. At least that is my takeaway.

Thanks!

Thanks for your input Rick.  God knows I've relied on it many, many times in the past.  I think for now on I might just PM you with these questions to avoid the ensuing s#!t storm.

Here's what I did, I put the cassette on w/ no grease, but I did grease the threads on the lock ring.

I should really just let this thread die...

I've got a machinist's handbook. It's from my other professional life (The one between bike mechanic and sales manager). Not sure why it's pathetic that bicycle mechanics don't have them. They aren't typically machining parts. And most bike shops don't typically have a Bridgeport hanging out in the back.



Edited by graceful_dave 2009-09-15 8:37 AM