Re: Torque wrench question

No I don't suppose I need to develop a 'feel' but it does seem that mention
of torque wrenches results in lot of comments about how you don't need them
and about developing a 'feel' for tightness.

I use torque wrenches because I have next to no skill or experience around
bike maintenance (although I'm keen to learn) and playing around with doing
up bolts without a torque wrench and guessing torque before checking things
with a torque wrench shows just how wildly inaccurate I am! Equally if you
have lots of experience and work on bikes regularly I'm sure that you can
develop a good feel for things but if like me your new to it and only
intend, for example, to whip the BB out every 6 months or so I guess it's
going to be tougher to do. Also a book on maintenance however good it is (I
have Zinn and the art of MTB maintenance) can't check things over for you
and say whether you've done things right or wrong.

I'm lacking confidence in my abilities and I guess that a torque wrench
makes things feel a little safer. I suppose this might mean developing an
over-reliance on the wrenches rather than developing a feel for things but I
suppose we've all got to start somewhere.

"Qui si parla Campagnolo" <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1130679420.743258.284900@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> PJay wrote:
>> I'm still a bit unsure of myself around maintenance issues so I've been
>> using a torque wrench for a lot of bolts (hopefully one day I'll develop
>> a
>> good feel for things without a torque wrench).
>
> People that work on other things, like cars, don't wish to develop a
> 'feel', why should you?
>
>>
>> Certain tools (BB tool, cassette lockring tool) require a variety of
>> adapters/sockets to fit them to the wrench. For example the BB tool fits
>> in
>> a fairly long socket I have. Does extending the tool part away from the
>> wrench affect torque or should it be just as accurate?
>>
>> Regarding the BB, the general advice seems to be 'do it up nice and
>> tight',
>> which I have done. There's no play when grabbing the cranks and trying to
>> move the BB, and I've ridden the bike reasonably hard with no sign of
>> movement or creaking from the BB area so I'm assuming that things are
>> fine.
>> Are there any symptoms of too loose or too tight a BB I should be looking
>> out for?
>
> Depends on the BB type. If it is a cup and ball BB, nice and tight'=it
> is being killed as you ride it. For cart bearing type, tight is right.
> If the crank is loose, via the BB spindle on a cart BB, something is
> wrong.
>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> PJay
>


.

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