Took me 15 years to figure out I was greasing pedal threads wrong

I always slathered grease on the entire pedal spindle before threading it into the crank arm. Last month I swapped pedals on my old Trek and the left one just would not torque right. My buddy who runs the shop down the street watched me and said 'you're only supposed to grease the threads, not the whole shaft.' I felt like an idiot. Anyone else make that mistake for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_thomas1mo ago

A while back I read an article from Park Tool that explained exactly this. They said the grease on the spindle shaft can actually trap dirt and grit that gets pushed into the crank arm over time, which can ruin the threads or cause creaking. I had been doing the same thing for years before that, just globbing it on all over. Now I put a thin layer just on the threads and that's it.

josephbutler1mo ago

Maybe it's just me but a little extra grease never seemed to cause any real issues in ten years.