Torque Wrench – honestly?

Mister P – Member
> Mountain bikers are inclined to overtighten everything

I think some mountain bikers are actually mountain gorillasHence their inability to use Presta valves without ripping them apart.

Also, Halfords Professional torque wrenches aren’t expensive and are very good.

everything has the same optimal torque;
1) tighten til you strip the thread
2) back it off half a turn.

Job done.

I was given one of the heath robinson ones that comes free with a Canyon bike and assuming it is even vaguely accurate I was surprised how much 5nm (bar/stem clamp bolts) was, tighter than Ive ever done by feel.

I’ve been fixing my own bikes for years. I never owned a torque wrench until about 2 years ago. When I started using it I was very surprised at how little force was required for some bolts. 8nm is not really that much.

Or about 35 quid. Though obviously that won’t be good enough for STW.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=32396

But of course, this being STW there are three basic rules to follow:

1. Always disagree with anything anyone else says.

2. Never buy anything unless it’s ridiculously expensive.

3. When in doubt, ridicule the idea that any sort of ‘special tool’ bar a hammer and a half-brick is worth using. ‘I rebuilt the cylinder head on my Ferrari using home-made allen keys and a sledgehammer’

But anyway, isn’t it more that sometimes, carbon bits and bobs, things that strip easy like early HT crank pinch bolts etc a torque wrench is worth having. Other times it’s not. Try thinking beyond the black and white.

And as for spending over £100 on a torque wrench, yeah, of course you’ll get a higher quality bit of kit for that, but equally a cheaper, but properly calibrated one will still do the job, particularly if you’re not using it that much.

Well you just broke rule 1 and 2 which is rather funny.

I wouldn’t say that CRC one is decent. Sounds lame but i’ve never even heard of cyclo……. reviews aren’t bad though

I’ve got two, regular and huge, they’re primarily for working on cars but get used on the bike where required.

You needn’t pay a fortune for them but make sure you store it correctly so the calibration doesn’t screw up.

I wouldn’t say that CRC one is decent. Sounds lame but i’ve never even heard of cyclo……. reviews aren’t bad though

I made my own torque wrench from a sardine can and some spring steel knitting needles then calibrated it against my mate’s Snap On professional torque wrench, there was very little in it when it came to precision and it was only the faint aroma of fish that stopped me using it long term.

I’m impressed that you can look at a picture and description on a web site and know that something’s sub-standard. That wouldn’t be because it doesn’t cost 100 quid plus, would it? Good to see you’re conforming nicely.

Sometimes i wish people that didnt work with bikes through the day would come on here spouting stuff about it not being rocket science or formula one when it comes to torque wrenches on certain parts on bicycles.

I dont use them on every part of a bicycle but with the size/quality of a lot of handlebar stem faceplates out there,i dont think i would sleep very well at night having serviced a customers road bike with a carbon stem and/or bar having just nipped them up to what i think is good enough. If i guessed it i would question the stress i just put on the bolts or stem threads.. i`d also question wether the dropped bars are going to stay put on the 50mph descents that the rider might be on in the future.

Fine if you want to guess tightness of fixings on your OWN bike but some of us like to sleep well at night. If theres hundreds of pounds worth of torque wrench sitting about at work,i need to use them,especially for parts like i mentioned above.

*edit.. i hope you enjoy the next bar wrenching out of the saddle climb you might put the road bike through,and enjoy the descent even more.As far as F1 goes.. i think i would rather risk a drive in an F1 car with guessed wheel nut torques than a lightweight carbon road bike build that was guessed.