torque wrench for whole bike

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robhall2003
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:18 pm

by robhall2003

well I bought a Torque wrench for low NM stuff and never really used it because for the smaller stuff the wrenches tend to be a bit bulky. I've tightened enough bike stuff by ear, as it were, and nothing's fallen off yet! Of course over tightening is no good, so just don't go mad.

I too have a Ultra Torque and for that and cassettes etc I have a 30 euro wrench (http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/torq ... 5-nm-32613) and it works great.

I think it's easy to get a bit carried away worrying about over tightening but common sense is probably as useful as a torque wrench for a 7nm screw...

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robhall2003
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:18 pm

by robhall2003

F45 wrote:Torque wrenches aren't accurate at all and are pretty much pointless if you know what you're doing.



I'll second that

campagnolo321
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2013 7:17 pm

by campagnolo321

F45 wrote:Torque wrenches aren't accurate at all and are pretty much pointless if you know what you're doing.



Thats a great comment Mr. Armchair Engineer, please feel free to contact some of the well known torque wrench manufactures that produce said items for aerospace, motosport and other industries that are required to use torque wrenches and tell them just that !

Oh, and please post here the replys you get as I for one would love to hear the replys !

eric
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Location: Santa Cruz, California, USA
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by eric

The Grassroots Motorsports article did test the torque wrenches across a range. I can't find it on line however.

I used to tighten my pedals not too tight but I have had a couple start squeaking. I do them up tighter now. People with Garmin Vector pedals need to use a torque wrench as the wattage reading is affected by how tight the pedals are in the crank.

I did a test a while ago of me tightening fasteners to what I felt was X ft-lbs and then checking how close I got. Turns out that I do ok for small values but undertorque stuff in the BB cup/crank range on up. Other people are different. I've worked on motorcycles that had been maintained by gorillas who tightened all the small fasteners to within a ft/lb of stripping the threads.

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BRM
Posts: 817
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 3:43 pm

by BRM

robhall2003 wrote:
F45 wrote:Torque wrenches aren't accurate at all and are pretty much pointless if you know what you're doing.



I'll second that


Interesting. So,tell me how do you both know what you're doing? :D
The outcome of your assumption that if these tools are not accurate you both say that calibration is also fake? And the certificates that came with my Gedore torque wrenches are fake too? :shock:

(The best tool available to test your ideas and visions, is critical questions approach aka critical thinking)

asv
Posts: 182
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:26 pm

by asv

This one does pretty much everything you would need http://www.topeak.com/products/Homeshop-Tools/dtorq_dx

tomyboy2

by tomyboy2

asv wrote:This one does pretty much everything you would need http://www.topeak.com/products/Homeshop-Tools/dtorq_dx

Using the same one for years now.
All the range 4-80Nm on one wrench, great digital accuracy.
Below 4Nm you really don't need a torque wrench, you can tighten the bolt by feel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yre2M2BxRdk
Expensive but worth it... :up:
...
..
....Or you can buy both.... :wink:

Hawkwood
Posts: 334
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 4:27 pm

by Hawkwood

campagnolo321 wrote:
F45 wrote:Torque wrenches aren't accurate at all and are pretty much pointless if you know what you're doing.



Thats a great comment Mr. Armchair Engineer, please feel free to contact some of the well known torque wrench manufactures that produce said items for aerospace, motosport and other industries that are required to use torque wrenches and tell them just that !

Oh, and please post here the replys you get as I for one would love to hear the replys !


My brother joined the RAF 20 years ago to train as an airframe fitter. He told me that day one of the engineering training was all about how dangerous ejector seats are to unwary fitters. On day two they were given a range of torque wrenches to test and all of them were extremely inaccurate, the lesson being to test them regularly. He still works in the aerospace industry on fast jets, I'll ask him if wrenches nowadays are more accurate.

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BRM
Posts: 817
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 3:43 pm

by BRM

Hawkwood wrote:
campagnolo321 wrote:
F45 wrote:Torque wrenches aren't accurate at all and are pretty much pointless if you know what you're doing.



Thats a great comment Mr. Armchair Engineer, please feel free to contact some of the well known torque wrench manufactures that produce said items for aerospace, motosport and other industries that are required to use torque wrenches and tell them just that !

Oh, and please post here the replys you get as I for one would love to hear the replys !


My brother joined the RAF 20 years ago to train as an airframe fitter. He told me that day one of the engineering training was all about how dangerous ejector seats are to unwary fitters. On day two they were given a range of torque wrenches to test and all of them were extremely inaccurate, the lesson being to test them regularly. He still works in the aerospace industry on fast jets, I'll ask him if wrenches nowadays are more accurate.


Probably a wrong interpretation of the real event. :)

In the RAF it was/is a rule to first check the torquewrenches before use and when no good it need to be send in for callibration.

digitalnorbs
Posts: 441
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:49 pm

by digitalnorbs

thank you all for your input, now my head is spinning, LOL!

digitalnorbs
Posts: 441
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:49 pm

by digitalnorbs

since we are on this issue, do any have/know if any one else made a torque list for either shimano/sram or campy parts ect. I guess I should stop being lazy and make my own=)

VQ30DE
Posts: 103
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 7:32 am
Contact:

by VQ30DE

I have a hard time believing that torque wrenches get so far out of calibration that they can be worse than "feel". It's probably 5-10% at most, but I'd appreciate any hard evidence otherwise. Anecdotes about what your brother says are not admissible, no matter how cool he is.

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HammerTime2
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by HammerTime2

VQ30DE wrote:Anecdotes about what your brother says are not admissible, no matter how cool he is.
Tue 'dat about your brother. But my neighbors' in-laws' second cousin's son used to perform professional bike assembly at K-Mart, and he said that he never used a torque wrench, nor did any of his fellow expert assemblers, so I think that settles the matter once and for all.

NickD51
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:20 pm

by NickD51

I thought some would like to see another nice option for low torque requirements. CDI is made by SnapOn so you know it is good. Since I recently picked up a BMC SLR01, this is required for some things like seatpost clamp and bar adjustments. Won't help you with mounting pedals to those carbon cranks or cassette lockrings but basic allen and torx bits are even included. Carried by many but found good price here:
http://www.industrialsupplydenver.com/cditosc28nm1.html

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F45
Posts: 1077
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 6:08 am

by F45

campagnolo321 wrote:
F45 wrote:Torque wrenches aren't accurate at all and are pretty much pointless if you know what you're doing.



Thats a great comment Mr. Armchair Engineer, please feel free to contact some of the well known torque wrench manufactures that produce said items for aerospace, motosport and other industries that are required to use torque wrenches and tell them just that !

Oh, and please post here the replys you get as I for one would love to hear the replys !


The inaccuracy isn't with the wrench, it's the highly variable friction in the bolt threads that will make your reading up to 30% off the intended clamping force. The clamping force is what we're going for, right, because of our fragile carbon parts? You can get a closer reading by using a good thread lubricant. But how many of you are doing this?

Say a bolt calls for 5 N-m. That is a little more than a pound force at one meter. So your 25cm wrench needs 5 lbs at the end of it. You need a special tool for that? You don't know what 5 lbs of force feels like? You can press on your digital scale to calibrate your hand if you're unsure. You can even hook your bike scale around your wrench and pull to the desired reading. I just don't see the point in keeping track of more tools than are necessary.

Flame away!

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