Being a serial over-tightener with an awfully calibrated eye, is the “quarter-turn” method the best for securing stem bolts?

Tighten til the threads strip then back off a touch.

🙂

Usually it’s all quarter turn happiness but i’m being a bit paranoid with new stem/fork/bar.

I’ll stop drinking & have a look in the afternoon.

Edit: Was that a proper answer… that tight?

Have a couple of beerss, then you won’t give a ****

Or buy non-silly hardware that doesn’t require a surgeon’s skill to fit!

Cheers for teh beeer BTW – lovely. See you later.

Gently, you can break anything if your hamfisted enough…

Nip it tight, then do 1/4 turn and check, eliminate wobble and back off a little. Make sure stem bolts are loose…..

Plan B Buy a torque wrench

About as tight as you can using the thin end of an allen key.

With a six foot bar hanging off the end of it.

😉

Cheap option:

From http://singletrackworld.com/2013/04/fresh-goods-friday-138/

£15 from Topeak

What’s all this nip it up then quarter turn nonsense? Just nip it up properly – you wont break it and it’ll be tight enough.

I think the point was that he didn’t know how hard to nip it up to begin with.

Ritchey Torque Key

GrahamS, have you used that Topeak?

I think the point was that he didn’t know how hard to nip it up to begin with.

Nipping up = tight enough to do the job, but nowhere near tight enough to strip the threads.

If you’re using the correct sized tool for the job, nipping up stops where you’re having to move your the next segment body to tighten it any further. I.e. if you’re having to start involving biceps and triceps when nipping up a 2mm bolt you’re way beyond nipping up.

[i]tightening stem bolts is like making love to a beautiful woman[/i]

little tweak here, little tweak there, here, there, here, there……

GrahamS, have you used that Topeak?

Not yet but I’ll be buying one next time I put in a CRC/wiggle order drop into my well-stocked friendly LBS. 😉

I suspect it is not super accurate, but looks “good enough for government work” as my boss used to say.

glupton1976 – Member

I think the point was that he didn’t know how hard to nip it up to begin with.

Nipping up = tight enough to do the job, but nowhere near tight enough to strip the threads.

If you’re using the correct sized tool for the job, nipping up stops where you’re having to move your the next segment body to tighten it any further. I.e. if you’re having to start involving biceps and triceps when nipping up a 2mm bolt you’re way beyond nipping up.
We both know how to do it, but we’ve probably learnt the hard way in the past. If it saves them the grief, stress and expense of stripping the thread of an expensive item using a torque wrench, then thats surely a good thing.
Thus they learn and save their kit getting fecked. Win Win.