# Is carbon paste absolutely necessary for bike?



## stan01 (Apr 30, 2014)

Talking to a friend who was asking about my Titanium bike that I built up. He wanted to know how I built it up & other tidbits. Which brought up the question of carbon paste. I didn't use any on any of the contact points between the frame & parts as I didn't experience any slippage at all. FYI, I'm using carbon seatpost & alloy stem with full carbon fork. 

I've been riding it with no problems at all & no slippage on any of the parts has occurred. He was going on how he was under the impression that it was an absolute must to use carbon paste on all builds. Am I wrong? Is it an absolute must even if no slippage is occurring? And I will be overhauling this bike at the end of the season.


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## Finx (Oct 19, 2017)

It is absolutely necessary on some bikes, in some places. Particularly the seatpost. I've had a couple that absolutely would slip with proper torque applied if I didn't use carbon friction paste.

In most cases, it probably just falls into the 'It's always a good idea' category. If you've ever had a bar rotate going over a bump, or a seatpost slip down on you, you know it's no fun, and can be extremely dangerous. Applying some friction paste will help prevent those things from happening and possibly reduce the tempation to over torque, and thus damage your expensive parts.

The stuff isn't expensive, and other than being a little messy, there is really no reason *not* to apply it, so why skip it?


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## DaveG (Feb 4, 2004)

stan01 said:


> Talking to a friend who was asking about my Titanium bike that I built up. He wanted to know how I built it up & other tidbits. Which brought up the question of carbon paste. I didn't use any on any of the contact points between the frame & parts as I didn't experience any slippage at all. FYI, I'm using carbon seatpost & alloy stem with full carbon fork.
> 
> I've been riding it with no problems at all & no slippage on any of the parts has occurred. He was going on how he was under the impression that it was an absolute must to use carbon paste on all builds. Am I wrong? Is it an absolute must even if no slippage is occurring? And I will be overhauling this bike at the end of the season.


carbon paste is not required but it seems like a good idea. Now using some sort of Anti-seize where other metals attached to your Ti frame (like BB cups) is something I would not skip


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## Jay Strongbow (May 8, 2010)

Chain lube isn't absolutely necessary so asking if it's an absolute must is probably the wrong question about anything but you might have to wait 10 years or however long it takes for a carbon post to get bonded into a metal frame to get the true answer.
Grease works fine to. But I don't know why anyone would want to increase the chance of slippage or torque required to prevent it when they could decreases it with carbon assembly paste.


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## tlg (May 11, 2011)

stan01 said:


> Am I wrong? Is it an absolute must even if no slippage is occurring?


No you're correct. If there's no slipping you don't need it.


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## masont (Feb 6, 2010)

I mean, a saddle isn't absolutely necessary, but you probably want one.


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## OldChipper (May 15, 2011)

tlg said:


> No you're correct. If there's no slipping you don't need it.


Correct. In fact, in some circumstances, I’ve seen assembly paste make it *really* hard to subsequently remove a part (seat post etc.), hence the existence of products like “Carbo-move.” These days, most carbon bars and many aluminum and carbon stems come with textured surfaces at the interface, so I’ve found assembly paste to be unnecessary and redundant. On my Dogma and 2018 R5, I even use a thin layer of Dura-Ace grease on the seat post and have had no slippage - I had some creaking from the Dogma post when using assembly paste which the grease fixed. 

OTOH, on older bars/stems without texture or with lesser amounts, assembly paste isn’t the worst idea, and I have had some seat posts that would slip without past, so YMMV and use what works for your situation, But, it’s not a requirement. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro


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