IcySmooth52

I spent the morning going through my Raleigh RXS because I had ridden it through many intense weather situations intentionally. Good thing I did, because I found the front cartridge bearings to have some rust on the outside! A shock to me because this bike is still so new, and I had covered these in a grease intentionally made for water situations. (Not inside the cartridge, just covered)

I came to the conclusion it had to be from the water of downpours seeping in between the hub and axle, because there's no gasket to cover it. Very limited on ways to seal this area, because the axle has to go through the hub to threading on the other side of the frame, and anything added will be getting in touch with the bearings. So no grease (threads) and no sealants (bearings)

idc

Huh, interesting. I have the same bike and it's also the first time I've had thru axles (excepting my MTB, which I don't ride as much).

I was curious about this too because every time I remove the thru axle I wonder if it should be greased. From a little web searching it seems like a light amount of dry grease may be ok. I can't imagine the thru axle threads would come loose from a little bit.

CBBaron

I agree, a light application of grease should cause no problems. After years of winter commuting in the rust belt (it has that name for a reason), I put a light coating of grease on all my threaded connections so that I have a chance of getting them back apart again. I have yet to have anything that was properly tightened come loose.
My thru axles have not yet seen that kind of weather but I have already applied a light layer of grease on the axles and will keep an eye on the bearings.

Craig