Vent: That talk with a framebuilder made me question my torque wrench habits

I was at a shop swap meet last Saturday and got to chatting with a guy who builds custom frames out of his garage in Portland. He mentioned he never uses a torque wrench on carbon parts, just goes by feel after 20 years of practice. That hit me weird because I've been religiously torqueing everything to spec on customer bikes for years. But then he brought up how many carbon seatposts he's seen cracked from people overtightening even with a torque wrench set right. Makes me wonder if I'm causing more problems than I'm fixing. Has anyone else ever second guessed their torque wrench routine after hearing a pro do it different?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant56913d ago

@elliotburns I get what you're saying about consistency and engineering specs, but that point about the crappy wrenches has me wondering. If someone uses a beam style torque wrench that's been dropped a few times or a cheap click style that's never been calibrated, is the number on the side actually more reliable than a careful hand? Like are we really trusting the manufacturing tolerances on a $40 tool over someone who's felt carbon give way before? Not trying to be a contrarian here, just genuinely curious where the line is.

elliotburns13d ago

That Portland guy's been lucky more than skilled, 20 years of feel doesn't account for the huge variance in carbon layups and clamping designs from different manufacturers. A torque wrench eliminates guesswork and provides a consistent, repeatable baseline that's been tested by engineers, not just some dude's thumb. The cracked posts you see are almost always from people ignoring the spec entirely or using a cheap, uncalibrated wrench, not from following the numbers properly.