How & Where To Use Grease, Fiber Grip, Threadlock + Anti Seize On Your Bike

Here’s our guide to the various greases, fiber grips and threadlocks out there and how and where you should be using them on your bike.
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There are loads of products out there that claim to protect the threads on your bike or prevent bolts from seizing, which makes everything a bit confusing. To simplify things, we went out and spoke to the manufacturers to find out which products they recommend for which application. This is how we prepare threads and bolts on our bikes.

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grease is an absolute staple for the home mechanic everyone should have a tube of at least multi-purpose stuff lying around but there’s quite a lot of debate and misinformation about other products that you use on your bike like thread lockers anti-seize and fiber grip so we contacted the loader manufacturers to find out what they thought and their recommendations but first of all what on earth are these things well let’s start with loctite shall we or thread lockers loctite is actually the brand name it’s another product to put on the thread of a bowl then when you tighten it up it reacts to the lack of oxygen and hardens over a period of 24 hours or so meaning that the bolt is then locked in place in reality though different thread lockers are different strengths some are basically like glue then the mid strength stuff typically used on bikes like this can be freed relatively easily certainly more easily than a seized bolt generally mid-strength thread lock is blue in color anti-seize looks like grease and surprisingly stops things seizing together specifically really reactive metals like titanium or aluminium and it works by having like a non-reactive metal ground up into a powder and then put in the grease and then it stops the two opposing reactive sides of the thread from sticking together fiber grip kind of does the opposite really and specifically for carbon it adds more friction to clamping surfaces so you can then lower the clamping force without getting any slippage which is a very good thing because carbon doesn’t like really being clamped finally grease then it’s using all sorts of things as well as protecting lubricating bearings you can also use it as a kind of anti-seize on the threads of bolts it lubricates the surfaces and then seals them from the elements so it is kind of like your go-to guy then but where and when are we actually going to use all these products let’s start with the easy one shall we anti-seize its uses are fairly limited on bikes it has to be said pretty much the main one is going to be on seat posts if you’re using a metal post in a metal frame so either steel aluminium or titanium you can use grease it works pretty much as well but it does encourage slipping whereas this doesn’t so hence why you would use anti-seize and that’s pretty much it fiber grip is another really easy one use it on any carbon part that requires clamping in place even when carbon is being clamped in alloy so think seat post and frame and think stem and handlebars to use it just apply it to one surface only so post not frame and bars and not stem you can actually use it on alloy to alloy as well it’s certainly not going to do any harm so again on your handlebars and stem particularly one place you shouldn’t use it though is on your stereotube because the particles in the gel can actually increase wear on it over time which we really don’t want but otherwise in a nutshell that’s your fiber grip thread locker is great for bolts that you really don’t want to come loose particularly those actually that you can’t tighten properly or those that are subject to vibrations it’s essentially a safety mechanism so you tend to find it on places like your disc brake rotor bolts the brake caliper bolts a lot of manufacturers recommend that you should have it on your stem bolts trek for one and then also you might find it useful on your rear derailleur hanger as well where they tend to come undone quite a lot as well in terms of bolts that you can’t really tighten think about your mech adjustment bolts the high and low screws there put a dab of loctite on and then they’re not going to come out of whack what about places you can’t use it though well avoid titanium or aluminium bolts which are so prone to seizing you probably don’t want to add anything else in as a general rule we’d say actually that you probably shouldn’t use loctite on anywhere that you don’t have to use it in that case grease is tend to be much much better now one place that certain manufacturers also recommend putting loctite is on the bottom bracket cups now press fit bottom brackets are often prone to creaking particularly in carbon frames and using a holding compound like a loctite could potentially glue the cups in place and stop those creaking noises it’s a pretty extreme solution and we certainly would say don’t do anything without talking to the manufacturer of your frame first because you could well void the warranty but if you’ve got a creaky bottom bracket i appreciate you’re going to be doing anything you possibly can to silence it so everything else needs grease right well pretty much but not completely there is a slight problem that occasionally crops up when it comes to torque ratings now some manufacturers specify that bolt should be torqued dry and others should be torqued when they’re greased up the difference is minimal but when you grease a bolt you effectively decrease the friction on it and therefore increase the relative clamping forces so you should always pay attention to the manufacturer’s instructions in terms of wear needs greasing make sure you’ve got grease on your pedal axles so they don’t get seized also on your chainring bolts to stop them potentially creaking crank bolts and if you’ve got an older staff threaded bottom bracket then make sure that’s greased up as well away from your actual bike cleat bolts are really contentious now the problem is that they can sometimes come loose but they’re equally they’re really really prone to seizing now we recommend using a thread lock typically a mid-strength one like a blue one because although it seizes the bolt in effectively it’s a controlled seize whereas what you want to avoid is that uncontrolled metallic seizing that you then can’t get undone you strip your bolt and then you have to drill the cleat out we’ve all been there at least i have several times now if you are concerned about being able to get the cleat off again then just use grease but do keep an eye on bolt tightness right anti-seize on metal to metal contact like titanium or aluminium loctite specifically on disc brake bolts possibly also your mech adjustment bolts and also your cleat bolts fiber grip specifically on carbon that needs to be clamped so your seat post and your handlebars and finally grease pretty much everything else so your bolts are prepped to use a torque wrench correctly then you’ll need to watch a video which you can get to just up there and if you’ve just been messing around with the cleat bolts make sure that you’re there in the right place watch the video saying how to do that just down there and then finally obviously you don’t want to miss any more mechanical videos so make sure that you subscribe to gcn by clicking on me