[Closed] Raceface Atlas Stem marking one up carbon bars

Out of interest where did you get the value for torquing your stem bolts up ?

Stem says 5 nm and oneup bars are max 5nm so torqued to that. Used carbon paste as well.

p.s. torqued evenly and even gap with stem bolts.

Post a pic here and a
Share with / ask one up.

Sounds like you installed perfectly. Noticed with carbon when riding what one person may ignore another will go nuts over.

Always prefer quality alu bar than carbon.

Check the bar with digital vernier caliper, centre bulge might be slightly ovalised, surprising how many bars aren't perfectly round. My Hope stem left slight clamp mark's on my carbon protapers, you could see were the faceplate had been on the bars, don't think the actual carbon was damaged, just the paint but I went back to alloy bars.

Just got one up bars but I’ve not fit them yet so I’d be interested to find out if this is an issue.

I just got some one-up bars, I torqued them just enough to stop them rotating without excessive force.

I'm running my One-ups on a rigid and it does seem to have taken a load of shock out of the bars, loads more than I expected. Rode some steps on them and stopped afterwards to check if I had a soft front tyre, rode a fast downhill and it just felt a bit calmer. I'd love to put put my old alloy bars on for a side by side comparison but can't be bothered 🙂

Stem clamp has marked the bars (this is cleaned) and slight horizontal mark from face plate. Looking at the stem the face plate creates area where this can happen (not perfectly oval when clamped).

Am I being fussy or not?

Id ignore that and carry on.

As an aside, do you happen to use the gritty type of carbon paste btw?

I’m planning on running the same combo. As an aside, people trust torque wrenches too much, they tend to be way off. If you go to the max… you could be safely under, or way over, quite easily.

Yes to the gritty paste lol.

Just wondered mate,I now use the Motorex (think that's the brand name) as it works just as well and doesn't grind up bars/ posts, etc. as it's smooth, no "grit".👍

Found out about it on here ages back.

Exit: Yeah, this is the one, unoptainium it seems at the moment though...

Kelvin makes a good point about torque wrenches, I prefer a preset 5nm torquekey or my Topeak torque bits for the stem clamp, I don't trust the torque wrench accuracy in its lowest settings. I have a Ritchey, Bontrager and Topeak ones checked against each other regularly.

If you have a small low torque wrench sold like the kind sold for bike maintenance (I have a Giant branded one) then 5Nm isn't at the low end of the scale it's in the middle.

Re the bars - they usually have a really thick layer of lacquer on top which is pretty soft and easy to mark - but you haven't gone anywhere near the actual carbon which is the structural part of the bar.

Give One Up a ring if you are worried.

I asked one up if I needed to use carbon paste and they said not to.

Not unless needed. Just fit to 5Nm max. If you don't have the purchase you need then you can use it.

Might be the gritty paste that’s caused to issue?

people trust torque wrenches too much, they tend to be way off. If you go to the max… you could be safely under, or way over, quite easily.

I'll honourably disagree, had a few mates in the gauge room when I worked for GE, calibrating torque wrenches from small to large was their everyday bacon, not quite oil and gas size, but up to 500ft/lb so a fair size, and despite having a rough life getting dropped and hoiked about, they were never much more than a few percent out.

I'd agree they can be off, but not 'tend to be way off' at all.

Even if the OP's torque wrench was 10% off, that's only 4.5 - 5.5 Nm, which will make bugger all difference.

OP - I wouldn't worry about that, looks fine.

Yea, i have had this problem with raceface stems before. Here's some bars i took off one of my bikes a few weeks ago. Had these on for 10 years and didn't die horribly though so you might be fine.

It's just marked the topcoat, nothing to worry about. My old Shimano brakes used to do this to my carbon bars.

Cool - I may refit then folks!! Just paranoid. Find it easy enough to injure myself due to ineptitude so don't want the bike killing me also!!

I also recommend a preset torquekey, saves faffing about with a torque wrench, most of which are 2nm to 15/24nm or 3nm to 15nm, so 5nm is firmly in the low settings, my xtools one cant tell the difference between 4nm and 5nm, so it's a bit crap.
Molgrips must have a 1nm to 9nm one 😀

2-10nm isn't that uncommon if you step away from bike shops and go to tool shops.

does the STW mob have a recommendation for a (low numbers) torque wrench?

Or a decent preset?

https://www.bikeradar.com/features/the-best-cycling-torque-wrenches/

I use and have done for a long time a tw-1 for low torque - needed a bending beam wrench for timing belt tensioners at the time

Then teng 5-25 1/4" drive for medium stuff

A 20-100 3/8" for heavier stuff

And a 40-210 1/2" when I'm guddling about big stuff .... Crank bolts and flywheels on engines or ****ing race Face cranks.......

Had the tengs on the machine a couple times at work in last 10 years always show. To be in spec so really not that worried how ever it's important to use common sense.....if its set to 5nm and your leaning on the bar to get 5nm.... Then it's not working right

Most important things are don't drop them , store them unset/wound off in their case.

Nice one. Anyone use the Syntace wrench?

For regular day to day stuff I use a little Park ATD, saves a lot of faff and works very well, hardly touched the smaller of my 2 torque wrenches since I got it, it's just quicker havin git to hand and it covers 4-6 nm which is good for most minor tasks.

Still need the big boy for putting 40nm on cassette lockrings, BB's etc though.