If you’re needing to change the grease used for the pedals on your bike, then it can be difficult to know where to start. There’s an abundance of different greases on the market, and some people will tell you that you need a specific grease – otherwise you’re going to end up damaging your bike. With all the contrasting views online, it can be difficult to know which of these opinions you should take on board.
You need to ensure that you have grease on your pedals to ensure that they do not seize. For this, you can either buy a specific cycling grease for this but to be honest, pretty much any good grease will do the job.
I say this because over the last few decades, I’ve used various different greases for my bicycles when I’ve been installing my pedals and I’ve never had an issue. Usually I just find the first grease that I’ve got on hand and still – I’ve never, ever had an issue. You will find some people who state that you have to use a specific type of grease, but in my opinion you don’t have to.
What kind of grease should you use for bike pedals?
Okay, so we’ve established that you really don’t need to use a special grease for your bike pedals. But if I had the choice, which grease would I opt for?
Generally, I use my Mag 1 grease for pretty much everything nowadays. I have it lying around in the workshop, and it’s really good as a multi use grease so you can use it for pretty much anything. This is especially true for bike pedals, and you won’t need to worry about them seizing up.
I literally use my Mag 1 grease for pretty much everything, so it’s not a bad idea to consider getting yourself some if you want to use it for other stuff too.
Does the grease temperature resistance matter?
Another common question I get is whether the temperature of the grease resistance matters. You’ll notice that a lot of grease companies advertise their products as ‘high temperature’, meaning that the grease can be used in extremely high temperature situations.
You don’t need to worry about this if you’re just using the grease for your bike. You bike isn’t going to be in the high temperature environments that grease companies are referring to. When they say this, they’re referring to really high temperature situations, so you don’t need to consider this if your bike is the only place you’re using your grease.
Can you use anti seize on a bike?
Generally, anti seize is not usually something that you would use on a bike. This is because it’s very easy for the bike to seize up if it doesn’t have proper lubrication. Remember, although many people think things like copper grease are lubricators, it’s actually an anti seize – I know, the term ‘grease’ can be a little confusing. This means that copper grease isn’t ideal for using with a bike, because it’s mainly used to sop things from seizing as opposed to helping lubrication.
The only place that I would think you might want to use some anti seize is on your seat post. If you’ve got a metal seat post, it can help to keep the seat post in place. Honestly, you could probably get away with just using a lubricating grease too, so it isn’t necessary to go out and purchase a copper grease just for your seat post.
Should I use fiber grip on my bike?
Like anti seize, generally fiber grip isn’t something that springs to mind when considering bike maintenance. Although you might be tempted, you don’t want to use fiber grip on things like your steerer tube. Why? Well, over time you’re just going to increase the wear and tear on your steerer tube, which is definitely something we don’t want.
You can use fiber grip in other areas of your bike – particularly anywhere that needs to be clamped together. When you’re putting your seat post into the frame, then you can use a little fiber grip to allow the seat to enter the frame easily
Threadlocking fluid for bike bolts?
If you have a lot of bolts on your bike – and most do – then you’ll definitely want to use it to help maintain your bike. It’s important to ensure that you use Threadlocker – I’ve written about how Permatex and Loctite work well here – on those important places that you don’t want to bolts come loose easily.
Things like your disc brake rotor bolts are extremely useful places to use some sort of threadlocker to help ensure that the bolts are secure.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this has helped clear up any issues you’ve had when considering how to maintain your bike properly. Although some people think you can just use grease everywhere, there are occasions where you’ll want to use a different types of maintenance to help keep your bike working properly. To apply them properly, you might want to consider a good grease gun too, which I wrote more about here. This can make things a lot easier. For the most part, bikes can be easily maintained with a normal grease like the ones I’ve mentioned.
