It is interesting, and entertaining, to see the discussion about grease on threads. Brian Baylis mentioned yesterday that Faliero Masi insisted on lubing every threaded bolt, including some that you might otherwise ignore. Hugh Enox mentions the aluminum-steel issues that many have experienced. In my distant past, I restored Porsche cars. At the time, Porsche recommended against grease on some threads because of the chance that you would "over-torque", which intuitively makes sense to me. They did, as Hugh mentioned, sometimes suggest anti-seize compound. It isn't clear to me that anti-seize compound isn't actually a form of grease however. See this link: http://www.jetlubecanada.com/AS.html. For bicycles, since we don't have the same torque required as you do on automobiles, I would say that lube makes sense on all but the highest torque situations. Just my opinion, but the crankbolts & stem bolts might be ones that would be better treated with anti-seize than with lube. Also, lubing the square ends of the bb spindle used to be a no-no as it could cause the crankset to overseat, creating a lose crankset, cracking the crank, or forcing the chainrings against the chainstay. I'm not sure what the current thinking is. Regarding whether silicone based grease is better than other grease, I don't think it really matters a great deal if you routinely perform maintenance on your bikes. Lou Deeter, Orlando FL