Having dug my old Halfords torque wrench out of the bottom of my tool kit, I think I could do with a better one. I bought it in 1997 to fit a square taper bottom bracket and haven’t used it since. It’s been stored under tension for the last couple of decades, so no idea how accurate it is now.

The X-Tools Essential Torque Wrench for £24.99 looks a steal; shame it’s no good for bottom brackets, or cassette and rotor lock nuts. Having ready various previous threads Norbar seem to come quite highly recommended; are they better than the ParkTool ones which appear to be similarly priced at the moment? If so, which one, they appear to do loads…?

Are there any other brands I should be looking at? Can I get away with something like the ParkTool TW-6.2 for all the hefty stuff, and my Topeak 5 Nm Nano Torqbox for the rest…?

We send all of our master torque calibration transducers to Norbar for calibration….

Norbar. They make torque wrenches and nothing else. They’re very good.

Norbar wrenches are an investment. They will last a long time and can be recalibrated. If you have the cash and do a lot of spannering then go for it. If not, the X tools one is fine.

Norbar come with a certificate. Can’t beat that.
My mate has one it’s the shizz.

I have a Norbar torque wrench. It is good, but comes in a shitty box* and has a crappy plastic adjuster. It’s like they’d gone 97% of the way to make great product and given up.

*One of those sleeve things, except it gets stuck together. When, and if, you pull it apart the tool gets flung across the garage. This is bad, especially when it has a crappy plastic adjuster that breaks easily.

I also have one of the Norbar ones with the “crappy” plastic adjuster, mine lives in my toolbox, gets used every day, and because it doesn’t get flung across the garage, it doesn’t and hasn’t got broken, and has worked fine for years. Mine has a 1/4″drive 5-25nm range for most of the general bike work, and i’ve also got a Teng 3/8″ drive 20-100nm for BB and crank work (Screwfix 49363) which is fine, but I won’t recommend their 1/4 type as mine had problems with it’s locking collar either contantly locking during adjustment, or falling apart (it’s actually currently missing after return from being loaned to a friend of a friend)

So Norbar seem to have all the love then. They have rather a lot of options, what product range should I be looking at…? I prolly only need something that can do up to 50 Nm…

I have the one with a 3/8″ driver that does 2 to 20nm that I picked up of Amazon. That more than covers most of my bike requirements, 50nm is a lot for bike stuff.

@lunge yes, but I need to fit a BB at 35 – 50 Nm and the cassette and rotor lock rings at 40 Nm. As per the other thread, these will have to be adjusted down to account for antiseize or thread lock, but still way above the 24 Nm that things like the X-Tools one offer.

TBH for bikes, does it matter? Stem clamps on carbon bars, maybe if you’re ham fisted. Seat clamps are the correct tightness when the dropper still works but the post doesn’t slip etc.

And I say that as the owner of several torque wrenches.

Norbar come with a certificate. Can’t beat that.

Even the cheapest and nastiest torque wrenches will come with some sort of calibration certificate. The question is how long do you trust it for. And the answer is either A) you don’t because the postie probably dropped it so you get it checked on site then handle it with cotton gloves until either your site procedures say get it checked or you think it needs calibrating. Or B) you assume it’s good forever until eventually you find that the bottom of a toolbox in a damp garage with the tension wound right upto 250Nm wasn’t the best place for it when it strips a bolt as the click had corroded.

@lunge yes, but I need to fit a BB at 35 – 50 Nm and the cassette and rotor lock rings at 40 Nm. As per the other thread, these will have to be adjusted down to account for antiseize or thread lock, but still way above the 24 Nm that things like the X-Tools one offer.

There’s a reason the shimano tool is about 10″ long and has sharp edges, just use that until they’re comfortably tight.

It’s not like torquing down a cylinder head or clutch plate where they have to be perfectly even as well as the correct torque.

@k1100t, understand.
Rightly or wrongly, I’ve always taken the view that the lower torques are important, bars, stem, seatpost, etc. and that higher torques a less important.

TBH I wouldn’t worry too much with a torque wrench for bb or cassette, I never have and all is ok…

I also have one of the Norbar 3/8″ 2-20nm and think it’s a great piece of kit. I also have a cheaper one for the higher torque stuff where I think high accuracy isn’t quite as important.

I have a 30 yr old big 1/2″ Norbar, so went for them again and bought the 1/4″ Norbar.

Worth thinking whether they can torque reverse thread bolts / nuts too.

I am with the posters above not bothering to use it on BBs or Cassettes or pedals. Use it on everything else delicate eg. Fork damper upgrade last night, suspension pivot bolts or clamping things on carbon bars….

Got one of these for my birthday…… it’s noice. Comes with a certificate too – if that’s important.

Wera bike torque set

I use this for bikes and it seems good and not too expensive.
Sealey 2-24 torque wrench

I have a Norbar 0-23nm (I think it’s 23nm) and it’s been great for the last few years. Can’t comment on the other cheaper ones as I have not used them. It’s a great piece of kit that gets used more than I thought it would – especially good for carbon. It was twice the price of the cheaper ones however.

Just found a new Norbar TTi50 for £55 on eBay, so I bought it. If I’m going to build this bike, I’m damn well going to do it properly! For a change… 🙄

Just found a new Norbar TTi50 for £55 on eBay, so I bought it. If I’m going to build this bike, I’m damn well going to do it properly! For a change… 🙄

If I am reading the specs for that right, it isn’t going to be a lot of use. Stem’s and seat posts take a fair bit less than the lowest setting.

@mrmo I have a fixed 5Nm doodah for those. I needed something for all the other stuff…

that’s ok, just thought it wise to mention.

Abiding memory from a previous job, bloke was asked to use a torque wrench to tighten a bolt, it was circa 3″ in diameter. A while later there was a loud crack followed by expletives. He was on the floor torque wrench next to him, and a 6′ scaffolding poll over the end.

apparently the wrench hadn’t gone click so he assumed he needed more leverage.

@k1100t Don’t want to p1ss on your chips mate but those low torque bolts are the ones where I would consider an expensive accurately calibrated torque wrench to be most important. Save the fixed doodah (that may or may not be accurate) for occasional emergency use.

@Jordan piss away. I can only afford the one wrench, so the 5Nm doodah will have to do for the time being.