Originally Posted by
Iride01
I don't know if you are one of them, but I've known many that do seem to think they have to tighten everything with all their might. And that does frequently result in broken bolts or stripped threads.
If one has no clue when they've tightened the thing just enough and instead continue till they've damaged something, then I'll agree that they probably need torque wrenches. However for those that don't think that every bolt or nut needs to be super tight, then a torque wrench on a bicycle isn't needed. Even for carbon stuff.
There is no shame in using a torque wrench. So any that are unsure or inexperienced at sensing when things are tight enough should use one if it helps them. This should not be something where one is wrong for using or not using them.
You miss my point; I'm not claiming to be a reformed airline baggage handler or inexperienced.
I've been told that if you just cinch the seatpost binder down to where you can't move the saddle laterally, that's tight enough. I've also done that and wondered why things felt so wonky a few miles into a bumpy ride: answer was the binder bolt wasn't tight enough. As a clyde, there's a fairly narrow range of binder bolt torques that will keep the saddle where I need it, and Oops! Too tight!
I've built up my travel bike 3-4 dozen times, and most of those were unremarkable. I'll normally get everything snug, and then go over the entire bike once more to make sure, for example, the bars don't flop down the first time I hit the brakes. (Yes, been there, done that.) Imagine putting a substantial fraction of your body weight onto a short allen wrench to snug up the crank, then make sure your stem is tight. It's pretty easy to see how that 5 Nm torque tight-enough sense gets skewed enough to strip the stem. Kind of like how it's easier to get a speeding ticket after you've been driving 4 hours on an interstate and then get off and go through a school zone!
So my intended point is that using a torque wrench is an easy and inexpensive way to prevent expensive errors caused by mis-estimating the force you're putting into a bolt, or even momentary inattention.