Guy at the co-op told me to grease my pedal threads

I was rebuilding a set of old Shimano pedals at the community bike co-op downtown and this older volunteer named Dave walked over. He saw me about to thread them into the cranks dry and said stop, you gotta grease the threads or they'll seize in there. I thought he was wrong because pedals have left and right threads and I figured they'd loosen up on their own. But he explained that corrosion from sweat and rain will lock them in place and you'll strip the crank arm trying to get them out later. Sure enough I looked it up and he was right. Now I always put a thin layer of grease on pedal threads before installation. Anyone else ever get bad advice from a shop guy that turned out to be true?

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan8986d agoMost Upvoted

Right? It's wild how skipping the boring steps always comes back to bite you later.

wesley3857d ago

Yeah Dave's one of those co-op guys who's been fixing bikes since before most of us were born so you kinda have to listen lol. I made the same mistake once and learned the hard way when I had to drill out a seized pedal last summer. Grease is cheap and crank arms aren't so it's worth the extra step for sure.

williamb296d ago

Too many people skip the little things that save big headaches, right? I see it all the time with my neighbors. Guy down the street never oils his truck door hinge, now it's a rusty mess. Another buddy didn't clean his gutters for two years, water damage cost him thousands. Same with bike pedals. We all want to rush through the boring steps. But a tiny dab of grease or a ten-minute job now beats a weekend of pain later. It's just basic maintenance logic.