Lets talk Torque keys....

MikeBrew

Just bought one of these little gizmos pre-set to 5nm. The problem I'm having is that I'm having to tighten wee bolts way further than I intuitively would, before it lets go with a very sudden and harsh click. Not at all sure that I trust it, which is a shame as I bought to take the guess work out of tightening stem, bar, and seat post clamps..... What are other peeps experiences with these things ?

grenw

I've got one of the Ritchey ones. It does seem to need more effort to get it to click that I would have though but I put this down to the fact that there is none of the leverage that an allen key has. I find the area you grip in not that comfortable to get a good twist going.

Never had a problem with what it does though - carbon or aluminium bars

meanredspider

I have the Ritchey key and think it's pretty good. It needs some effort to reach 5Nm but, for me, that's a good thing - it's almost self-limiting to 5Nm and it's convenient to pop in your pocket on those first few rides where you might want to tweak the seat height or bar position.

ayjaycee

Another one with a Ritchey here. Yes, it does seem to take some effort before the click but, as mentioned above, that is probably down to the relative lack of leverage in the small T handle. FWIW, I also have a 'proper' low range torque wrench (which is correctly calibrated) and it gives the same torque when set to 5nm as the Ritchey.

DKay

ayjaycee wrote:

Another one with a Ritchey here. Yes, it does seem to take some effort before the click but, as mentioned above, that is probably down to the relative lack of leverage in the small T handle. FWIW, I also have a 'proper' low range torque wrench (which is correctly calibrated) and it gives the same torque when set to 5nm as the Ritchey.

This is my experience too. My Torque Key matches my torque wrench when set to 5Nm and I see the reletively large force required to get the Torque Key to 5Nm as a positive.

DeVlaeminck

You don't have to go to 5nm you just can't go beyond.

DKay

Well, actually you can, as you can just keep turning when the click is reached...

MikeBrew

Rang the retailer, who agreed it didn't sound as though it was working correctly. They promptly sent a replacement, which appears to be working much better. Interestingly the replacement arrived with a calibration test certificate !

keef66

DKay wrote:

Well, actually you can, as you can just keep turning when the click is reached...

I think he just meant that 5Nm is usually the max recc torque; with carbon assembly paste it's possible to secure components at much lower values. I doubt my bars or seat post clamp are done up to anything close to 5Nm

DKay

keef66 wrote:

DKay wrote:

Well, actually you can, as you can just keep turning when the click is reached...

I think he just meant that 5Nm is usually the max recc torque; with carbon assembly paste it's possible to secure components at much lower values. I doubt my bars or seat post clamp are done up to anything close to 5Nm

Oh, I know exactly what he meant. I was just being an argumentative @rse.

MikeBrew

DeVlaeminck wrote:

You don't have to go to 5nm you just can't go beyond.

.

Well I guess I wanted to be sure it was doing anything at all, by tightening till it clicked. The whole point of me buying one at a was to be able to tighten and know it was enough AS WELL AS, not too much. In the past I've done up stem and seat post bolts very gingerly indeed.
As it turn out, the first one then sent out was faulty. I eventually tried it on some bolts in a tool rack and compared torque using my torque wrench. It was actually going to over 6nm before clicking off. The replacement is spot 5nm.

keef66

DKay wrote:

keef66 wrote:

DKay wrote:

Well, actually you can, as you can just keep turning when the click is reached...

I think he just meant that 5Nm is usually the max recc torque; with carbon assembly paste it's possible to secure components at much lower values. I doubt my bars or seat post clamp are done up to anything close to 5Nm

Oh, I know exactly what he meant. I was just being an argumentative @rse.