ritchey torque key

mb london

This is a strange request and I going to test the love on this site. I have new bars (carbon) waiting to go on my bike but do not have a torque wrench/key, i have scowled the entire web to get a ritchey torque key but no bugga has one.
So, I am asking if anyone has one which they would be happy to loan me for a while, I'll gladly pay for postage both ways. i figure this will be much cheaper than spending silly money on a proper bit kit.

I'll wait for the usual torrent of abuse

benpinnick

There are lots of cheapo ones available online. What torque are you after?

mb london

5 Nm

benpinnick

Lots of people have the bontrager one. Superstar also do one.

Bigchris

I've seen these recently in a few places, not sure where but definitely seen the bontragers in various places.

arthur_scrimshaw

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bon ... h-ec038648

I've got one, works great.

bikaholic

Who the hell uses a torque wrench or a torque key on bikes?

Just do it by feel, tighten a bit at a time in a diagonal bolt pattern until hand tight. Test, then tighten it a bit more if it's still loose. Then test again.

Paul 8v

I would with carbon bits, always done it by feel with alu parts

bikaholic

While he's/she's still faffing about with torque keys I will have built two bikes already.

There's a lot of common sense in the method described - you could call it the Newton-Raphson Method for tightening bolts (or iterative educated guess and check method in plain English).

mb london

bikaholic wrote:

While he's/she's still faffing about with torque keys I will have built two bikes already.

There's a lot of common sense in the method described - you could call it the Newton-Raphson Method for tightening bolts (or iterative educated guess and check method in plain English).

you carry on with your educated guesses and think of this thread when you hear those bars go crack, and all because you wouldnt part with £15

EH_Rob

+1 for common sense. I have installed carbon bars a number of times, and have never owned any such tool which you describe. None of these bars have ever cracked.

jairaj

if you order some haribo from here:

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=387

You'll also get a free torque key

YeehaaMcgee

mb london wrote:

bikaholic wrote:

While he's/she's still faffing about with torque keys I will have built two bikes already.

There's a lot of common sense in the method described - you could call it the Newton-Raphson Method for tightening bolts (or iterative educated guess and check method in plain English).

you carry on with your educated guesses and think of this thread when you hear those bars go crack, and all because you wouldnt part with £15

Considering that I've used expensive torque wrenches, and even the best of the best were wildly innacurate (necessitating callibrating them each time they were changed or every 30 minutes or so, with a torque gauge, which was standard practice) - I wouldn't put any faith at all in a £15 one doing the job it's supposed to.
Unless, you have a torque callibrator in your workshop, which, since he doesn't have a torque wrench yet, I severely doubt.

benpinnick

I dont think they're designed to be exact - just close enough to 5Nm that you cant torque it too much. And actually, as long as the thing they are designing and testing the ratchet with is well calibrated, and the manufacturing doesn't introduce large variances (which it shouldn't really) there's actually no good reason why it shouldn't be pretty much bang on.

YeehaaMcgee

benpinnick wrote:

I dont think they're designed to be exact - just close enough to 5Nm that you cant torque it too much. And actually, as long as the thing they are designing and testing the ratchet with is well calibrated, and the manufacturing doesn't introduce large variances (which it shouldn't really) there's actually no good reason why it shouldn't be pretty much bang on.

You'd think the same would be true of super expensive industrial torque wrenches built specifically to service critical high-voltage circuit breakers too, wouldn't you?

jairaj

But if the user was inexperienced and didn't really have a feel for how tight things should be then surely even an inaccurate torque wrench is better than nothing?

£15 isn't unreasonable for something that will show you roughly how tight things should be.

YeehaaMcgee

jairaj wrote:

But if the user was inexperienced and didn't really have a feel for how tight things should be then surely even an inaccurate torque wrench is better than nothing?

I'd actually say that it's worse than no torque wrench. If the inexperienced user implicitly trusts a broken torque wrench, then who knows how much pressure he/she's going to apply to it?

EH_Rob

Obviously if you want to buy it, go for it. But if there is an option to get someone with a bit of experience to assist, who can show you, then that might be a good way to go.

mb london

I ride a couple of times a month so would certainly not qualify as an expert, I have simply pimped by ride up with some ritchey carbon, I would have no idea what 5 Nm feel like and I don’t think my LBS would be overly motivated to lend me their tools. Surly a tool like this would be spot on.

Speaking of tools, there a fair few of them on here :P

nferrar

I reckon there's a place for the Ritchey torque key in a home mechanic's garage. It does a good job of getting roughly the right torque you need and it does it quickly (there's not setting up required, it's no slower than using a normal allen key). Not sure about the internals but I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually very accurate, it's set to a single torque figure not adjustable so presumably the clutch mech is simpler and less prone to going out of calibration. I'd bet it's more accurate than 99% of people's 'feel' of what 5Nm is.
I do agree there's not much use for a standard adjustable cheapy torque wrench (although the beam type ones are better if a calibration tool isn't available).