Quick question and I feel embarrassed to ask. When I ride gravel, my Silca Ti bottle cages rattle loose, even when torqued to spec on my carbon frame. I ordered some Silca ti bolts and I am contemplating putting blue locktite to prevent the bolts coming loose. When searching online, I find some people on all sides in terms of using blue locktite, never using it, using grease, antiseize, etc. I just want the simplest solution to keeping my cages from rattling loose and to maintain the ability to take the cages off if needed. Any help would be appreciated.
Blue Loctite won’t hurt. Grease and antiseize work fine too.
However, the bolts really shouldn’t be coming loose. Sounds like they’re being undertightened. If your screws are currently going in dry, the added friction may result in lowered holding force even if you reach recommended torque.
Properly engineered torque specs generally assume a lubricated screw. Blue Loctite, while wet, suffices as a lubricant. If the loosening persists, the manufacturer’s torque spec might be off.
If you’re at all worried about the Blue Loctite permanently holding the screw in there, avoid low-head bottle cage screws that use small allens, i.e. 3mm or less.
I didn’t lube them. I bet that was it and it makes sense know that I think about it. Thanks for the info!
Also, if you are worried about the blue loctite holding too tight you can use green loctite. It’s a weaker version so should be strong enough to keep it from vibrating loose but won’t prevent you from loosening them in the future.
I dont recommend loctite on the water bottle holes. They are simply rivets on carbon frames and if they come loose you are not getting the bolt out easily and then when its out its time to drill the rivet out and put a new one in.
I would recommend a lock washers if the issue continues to happen.
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I recommend starting with a little bit of grease or anti seize to see if that works. If not then maybe a washer.
Are the frame or bolts old and threads potentially stretched? Are you the original owner or could someone else have improperly installed bolts in the past to damage threads? Have you replaced the screws with new ones?
How about just a washer https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Plastic-Spacer-Washer-Thickness/dp/B07CR6M9SJ
The bolts coming out because it or the bottle cage is not stretched. The torque reading you get because of resistance of the bolt stretching or surface friction of the bolt head on the surface. The washer (or grease) acts as bearing limiting the amount of surface friction you get.
Some tape on the back of the cage helps too.
My old extensions secured with 3mm bolts kept on becoming marginally lose and a lbs mechanic used some carbon grip on them and that seemed to have worked at the time.
I did consider the carbon grip. I was thinking the “grit” could add some friction.
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I wouldn’t use carbon grip as it could abrade the threads and ultimately make the problem worse.
Probably why Park says not to use theirs on threaded parts. Blue loctite should be fine. Purple (222) is even weaker if you’re worried about the parts seizing.
I purchased a small bottle of low strength thread locker for just this use and it seems to work well. I’ve used it on both my road & mtn bikes plus a lot of the smaller screws on the mtn bike.