Grease, copperslip or locktite?

Easy one for you, STW. What gunge do I need for centerlock rotor lockrings? I was going with copperslip because it doesn’t have any movement and gets tightened to a high torque.

I’d go blue loctite because that’s what 6 bolt brake rotor bolts come with. But I imagine any of the above are better than nothing.

Wouldn’t blue loctite on something the size of a lockring be really hard to undo?

I think it’s closest to a threaded bottom bracket or a cassette, therefore I’d use copperslip or grease if I didn’t have any.

A very light smear of copper slip. Anti seize is the correct terminology, grease lubricates, loctite “glues”. Neither are required for a lock ring that requires 40Nm of torque to secure.

For external ones (bottom bracket type), my preference would be loctite and less torque. There’s not much of a head for the tool to grip onto, and I get worried about rounding them. plus the lockring is only holding the disc onto the spline, it’s not resisting the braking force or anything, I don’t see that they need to be done up to mega torques.

Wouldn’t blue loctite on something the size of a lockring be really hard to undo?

I think it’s closest to a threaded bottom bracket or a cassette, therefore I’d use copperslip or grease if I didn’t have any.

Most BB’s come with loctite pre-applied, you can always go with green loctite if you’re worried about un-doing it.

Neither are required for a lock ring that requires 40Nm of torque to secure.

But really this is the answer.

The only things I bother to re-apply loctite to are suspension pivots and the axles/adapters on hubs where they screw together. Most other bits are either torqued up tight enough that they’re going  nowhere, or not loaded in ways that would tend to loosen them.

the lockring is only holding the disc onto the spline, it’s not resisting the braking force or anything, I don’t see that they need to be done up to mega torques.

I used to think that but I have had the lockring work loose on several occasions, I now check it every so often and do it up tighter than I thought I would need to.

Copperslip on my Fulcrums with Shimano CL discs, slightly different lock ring arrangement, full 40Nm. It’s always a guess because bike manufacturers rarely specify torque dry or greased

6mm studding, big washers and nuts to hold the tool on the lockring, you can’t get the torque on a BB socket-type tool otherwise, dunno about the Shimano-type lockring tho

I’ve recently bought a first set of centre lock wheels. I thought about anti-sieze and I thought about the proximity to the braking surface and I fitted them gungeless.
I found a pressed steel BB tool to be better than a socket BB tool for getting a purchase on the lockring, as a consequence I don’t know what torque I have them at.
I’ve given them a quick tweak after the first few rides and had no problems so far.

Loctite 8065 is an anti-seize in a stick – just smear it over the threads, little risk of contamination as it’s quite dry. Lasts ages – good for things like pedal threads.

I thought about anti-seize and I thought about the proximity to the braking surface and I fitted them gungeless.

TBH I’d take them off soon as you can and apply a little anti-seize to the threads. If you are concerned about centrifugal forces throwing it out onto the rotor, just give the area a good clean around it to mop up any squeeze out – Just be diligent.

The problem is if you dont, you might not get the lockrings off again at some point down the line.

Correct answer is…..

6bolt hubs. CL is a shit bike design standard
{ducks head and wanders back off to house chores before MrsRNP notices}

Not copper based as it can have galvanic issues with aluminium.

If only Shimano made a high temperature anti-seize for dissimilar metal threaded joints…….

https://www.bicycledoctor.co.uk/tools-maintenance/tools/shimano-anti-seize-assembly-compound-50ml__3774

An aside…. Had my tub of copperslip/ copper grease out the other day and it says it can be used to stop brakes squealing.

Anyone tried it?

On the back of pads? – yes I do it on all my cars brakes.

Not copper based as it can have galvanic issues with aluminium.

It’s unusual, the galvanic table is a risk assessment rather than a definitive list. Having said that aluminium-based is the better option if there’s a need. There’s a stack of different metal-free anti-seize as well, depends how many pots you want 🙂

Copper-based can cause problems with rubber and in an electrical joint. Typically it’s resistant >1000C and won’t run into your brakes if carefully applied

Not copperslip itself , but I was equally sceptical until I saw an example of what aluminium and copper can get up to 🙂.

After a couple of years use, I found some strange erosion / deep pitting in a very localised area on the back side of an otherwise spotless aluminium steerer tube. It was in a frame where I’d experimented with a joint that pierced a capped-off down tube into the head tube rather than a regular  mitre. There was a bit of braze that was very close to but not touching the steerer which had collected a lump of muck / grease / moisture. I showed it to the metallurgist at work and he was quite intrigued, eventually concluding that the copper in the braze with the poultice of moist muck on top had resulted in galvanic corrosion.

So if there are other anti-seizes available then I’d probably use them for aluminium stuff in preference to copper based.

The anti-seize i use is Michelin ti anti seize. Comes in a small black tub, blue lid(all I know as label has long fallen off).

I bought it after mistakenly putting a BB in a Ti frame without any grease, and even after i suddenly remembers and tried to remove it 10 minutes later, from the noises it made it was not happy about unscrewing again. After that i put the stuff on liberally, even plastering it on with a small paintbrush