One for the mechanics here. Since forever I’ve always put a small amount of grease on chainring bolts or in fact almost any bolt when I’m putting bits on my bike, the idea being to help them not seize. What’s the official bike mechanics line on this? Bad idea/waste of time/not really needed but no harm done? Just curious..

Yep. Do it. Do it properly by using anti seize (copper grease) on stuff that doesn’t move like bolts though. 🙂

I’m no trained mechanic, but as far as threads on bike stuff is concerned, I always put a spot of grease on everything except brake rotor bolts, where I use threadlock.
In the 25 years on and off I’ve been mountain bike tinkering, Ive not had owt come loose or had trouble undoing stuff.

Aye- a bit of grease can also stop them creaking (which is good, because if they do creak they’ll be the last thing you check when looking for where the noise is coming from!).

Is copper grease a good bet for seatposts as well then?

edit: and good point munrobiker. I would never have suspected chainring bolts as being a source of creaking

I do it too. The one time I didn’t they creaked like no man’s business.

I grease pretty much everything apart from disc rotor bolts.

Is copper grease a good bet for seatposts as well then?

The man from the workshop… he says yes

Munrobiker beat me to it; I spent ages chasing down a creak last summer, my cranks, bb and pivot bolts were all removed loads, cleaned and regreased god knows how many times. It wasn’t until I was trying to remove the pedals whilst the crank arm was off the bike that I realised that it was the crank bolts creaking.

cheers all. I’ll add some copper grease to my collection of stuff then

This is a good article on when to use grease and when to use threadlock

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Tech-Tuesday-Thread-locker-Basics-2011.html

Edit: In summary…

Where to not use thread locker: Although blue thread locker can be put to use on many places, there are some where it shouldn’t be applied. It should be avoided when working with titanium bolts, especially when they are being threaded into a dissimilar metal, such as steel or aluminum. Anti-seize is your best bet here because it will prevent galvanization, allowing you to easily remove the fastener down the road. We would also recommend that you skip using Loctite on aluminum bolts as well for the same reason, but it can also make removing fragile aluminum hardware difficult, leading to rounded or broken off heads. Here are some other places that shouldn’t see thread locker:

• Chain ring bolts, especially aluminum versions (use grease to allow you to loosen them later on)
• Most crank set bolts (grease used here allows it to attain the proper torque)
• Pedal threads (pedals won’t loosen due to their reverse threading, but using grease will eliminate creaks and make them easier to remove)
• Axle threads on either front or rear thru-axles (grease here prevents the two aluminum surfaces from galling)
• Any small hardware that hasn’t repeatedly loosened (M3 sized bolts or smaller, such as those used to attach the adjustment dials of a fork. Using thick grease here will prevent loosening and make them easier to remove)