Preparing my bike for the senior’s new Off Road season I discovered the following manufacture’s warning on my five year warranty flat pedals, which are polycarbonate (high tech plastic) and aluminum with little steel pegs that can be height adjusted. Half of the steel pegs attach to the polycarbonate pedal section and I generally use Loctite 242 on bike parts that have been know to loosen over time. But…
Just so happens Max Moorman of Barnett Bicycle Institute’s recent long newsletter discusses lubes and thread lockers. www.bbinstitute.com Long story short, oil, grease, and anti-seize products are oil with additives. Oil diminishes with evaporation, and washing. Grease, oil stabilized with wax reduces with heat, because wax and oil tend to separate. But the semi-solid grease better resists displacement by water. Anti-seize is grease with lots of wax and chemical additives. Additives reduce corrosion by neutralizing the exchange of ions between two dissimilar metals; otherwise, dissimilar metals become chemically bonded by ion exchange and the creation of a mortar-like compound between the two metals. Ion exchange pits or textures smooth metallic surfaces allowing for a superb chemical bond a.k.a. galvanic corrosion. Galvanic corrosion only occurs between dissimilar metals, so using anti-seize between two pieces of steel, two pieces of titanium, or two pieces of aluminum is not different than just using grease. Anti-seize does degrade over time, and Max writes properly used liquid thread lockers provide the ultimate corrosion resistance and better stability over time.
1. Lubrication reduces friction and thread galling. 2. Friction reduction allows thread fitting to turn further at a given torque increasing tension that keeps the part from unthreading. 3. Lubrication resists moisture causing corrosion and galvanic corrosion.
More information from Mike Shannahan at Loctite http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/24136/anaerobic-adhesives-threadlockers
Anaerobic adhesives remain liquid until isolated from oxygen in the presence of metal ions, such as iron, copper, and aluminum. Typical nut-and-bolt assemblies have as little as 15 percent metal-to-metal contact, and a few drops of liquid threadlocker fills the remaining air voids between the threads and cures to thermoset plastic cross-linked polymer chains that impregnate every thread imperfection providing a 100 percent unitized (single unit) assembly until the user wants it to come apart. The adhesive fills all microscopic gaps between interfacing threads to seal threaded assemblies, preventing lateral movement, and protecting the joint from corrosion that can result from moisture, gasses and fluids, and ion exchange.
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