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Overheard a customer at the shop say they never grease their seatpost
I was cleaning a used bike we just took in yesterday, a Trek FX from 2018, and the customer who brought it in was chatting with my coworker. I heard him say, 'I never put anything on the seatpost, it just goes in dry.' My coworker just nodded along, but it made me stop what I was doing. That aluminum post was absolutely seized in the steel frame. It took me over an hour with a pipe wrench, a ton of penetrating oil, and some careful heat to get it out. The corrosion was bad. It's a simple thing, but I see seized posts all the time from people thinking it's not needed. A tiny bit of grease or anti-seize prevents a huge headache later. What's the one basic maintenance step you find yourself telling customers about the most?
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julia_patel11d ago
Totally agree, it's wild how that small step gets ignored. I've seen so many bikes get totaled over a cheap tube of grease.
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skyler_thomas12d ago
How do people not get that metal on metal needs lube? I saw a carbon seatpost get stuck in an aluminum frame once, it was a total loss. The repair bill was more than the bike was worth. Grease is cheap, new frames are not.
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