Granite Design's New RocknRoll TQ Torque Wrench Kit - Core Bike 2024

 No joke. When your elbow clicks it’s tight enough.

 @ajaxwalker: as a mechanic who teaches other mechanics, I really don’t recommend this.

 This is a great article by Dave Rome about how inaccurate most torque wrenches are/how misleading the actual stated accuracy is. +/-15% is still quite a big range though. Article: escapecollective.com/threaded-cheap-torque-wrenches-amazon-harbor-freight-aliexpress-review

 Still way better than someone meat fisting the stem bolts as tight as they can.

 @ajaxwalker: There are studies conducted that show mechanics cannot actually feel torque specs. I've been wrenching for decades, I know I have more wrenching experience than the vast majority of bike mechanics, and there is no way I would claim that my arm is calibrated. I know what it feels like when you're reaching a point where a bolt is tight, when a bit/socket will round a bolt head, or when you're potentially going to sheer a bolt. But, I'm not going to even pretend that I can precisely and accurately reach torque values.

Any mechanic that claims they can is a very bad mechanic.

 @topherdagopher: thats some funny shit

 @CamNeelyCantWheelie: some people learn the hard way while others use some sense.

 @topherdagopher: I thought it was measured in grunts? 1/4 grunt 1/2 grunt etc. maybe I was taught incorrectly?!
Funny thing is , my buddy’s dad was installing a set of heads (Toyota) and I questioned his lack of a torque wrench. He quickly put my 20 year old self in its place by describing his grunt measurement accuracy , I haven’t been the same since……

 @ajaxwalker: check the bolts on this guys bike before you ride it! jkjk....sort of.

 @nickfranko: I agree. I wrenched for 15yrs and when I was wrenching daily, I feel my low torque items like 3-5nm, I was pretty damn accurate. I’d regularly install an item, build a bike, or do a full overhaul and at the end go over each bolt with a torque wrench. On those items it was very rarely off by more than an 1/8 turn.
However, ask me to tighten something to 12nm and there’s no way I’d know where that really is. It’s by design, through accurate tolerances, most items will just happen to get “tight” right around where the intended torque specs are. I found the higher the quality of the product, often the more accurate “tight” was to torque specs. Through repetition and experience, I was damn accurate at getting a bolt tight, but I couldn’t tell you what a specific torque spec would be.

 We sometimes try to tighten to the right spot, then hit it with the torque wrench to ensure it's good. It's hilarious how off we normally are.

The Air Force once tried out a new joystick system for pilots. It was a joystick that was fully rigid, and had pressure sensors to feel how hard a pilot was pushing on the controls. Pilots by and large hated it, and the air force came to the following conclusion: human beings have an incredible amount of control of how FAR they move, just not how HARD they move. The project was cancelled.

So even at a top dogfight pilot level, nobody is able to consistently report on how much pressure they're applying to something. It just isn't a feasible thing humans can do.

 I can also say for the vast majority of the components this can be used on, the manufacturers of said components are vastly overestimating the accuracy of the threading on their components, the outsourced fasteners, and the proofing of the materials used.

The torque spec would be more accurately described "don't strip it our break it, but make it tight enough or use loctite" rather than "8.2nm". People love the numbers Solidworks FEA spits out though.
But clicking makes me feel better.

 No, people are correctly estimating how low quality and over priced bike specific tools are. If your torque wrench has a 30% window you dont need it.

 I'd definitely fork over the extra $10-40 for a Capri or Park Tool or Syncros torque wrench with -/+4% precision.

 So, set it to 10Nm and it could be between 8.5 and 11.5Nm.

I wonder for how long it stays that accurate and/or whether they offer a recalibration service later on to bring it back to the factory accuracy (of 15%).

 I mean at least they disclose it’s junk right out of the gate.

 Do people even use torque wrenches out on the trail?

 @vinay: This Ripmo owner takes a torque wrench when he travels for dis/assembly of the bike - the bike's Thomson stem's bolts are notoriously easy to strip...

 @justinfoil: I would think he is referring to stripping the threads, not rounding out the head.

 @st-alfie: If the bolts strip rather than the thread in the (supposedly aluminum) stem, I'd rather replace the bolts with some decent ones rather than invest in a torque tool (under conditions that could affect its accuracy) with loose bits (that'd easily be lost on the trail). Or even if a torque tool really needs to be used on that stem, I'd rather get those torque caps from Topeak with a fixed torque setting than this adjustable one.

 @vinay: nail on the head there with the fixed torque setting ones. Chances are, it's for a carbon bar or potentially a carbon steerer, other than that there's not much I would bother with a torque wrench in a mid ride scenario, and even then, if I've crashed hard enough to need to adjust stuff I'm probably taking it easy for the rest of the day anyway so hand tightened is probably less dodgy.

 @inked-up-metalhead: Actually, I see myself adjusting settings out on a ride either because I installed a new component and have to figure out how I want it exactly, or I have been working on my bike, reinstalled and went off riding to then find out something is slightly off. I know people go to lengths to try and get everything adjusted perfectly at home or in the garage but I feel a short ride makes it much easier to see whether something is slightly off. Then again, I don't use carbon bars or bolts so soft that the thread strips at 6Nm.

 @vinay: true, I generally just go for a quick local ride where I'm not doing anything taxing, using a multi tool to adjust and then go home and torque to spec before going for a proper ride, where I'd generally wait till I'm home again to adjust anything, but I get that that's not possible for some people, in which case, a specific fixed unit that you know is right for that component is 100% the better option.

 @inked-up-metalhead: Yeah, I just looked them up, they call them TorqBit. They have them in 4Nm, 5Nm and 6Nm which is probably what you need for most stem and brake bolts. I don't have them as I already have an adjustable tool (which I don't take with me on my rides) but I think they're pretty clever. Primarily because you don't need to adjust anything between bolts you're working on. But they could also come handy in this case, for someone who'd otherwise carry a more expensive and bulky tool for one component.

 @vinay: and I bet you they're a whole lot more accurate than 15%...

 @inked-up-metalhead: Actually, they're 6% accurate for the first 5000 uses. For the money, I think that's fine for amateur use. If bars are spec'd to be torqued up to 5Nm, I wouldn't expect them crack or delaminate at 5.3Nm. It is within spec as long as they don't request you to torque it up to 5.0Nm. 15% though, that'd get you between 4.25Nm and 5.75Nm. That'd round off to either 4Nm or 6Nm.

 @vinay: good news, no one is forcing you to buy these.

 Granite is a total knock-off company. I have some of their stuff and its decent enough but there are no new ideas coming from them.

 @RonSauce: yeah, unlikely to be a rebrand, more likely it's a clone made technically legal by Feedback not registering any copyright or IP in Taiwan. You are very right, in that if you see something from GD, there is a near 100% chance that the basic, and often identical, idea of it was available first from someone else.

 @justinfoil: how is this advertised on Pinkbike as something new without reference to the fact that its already been around for years? Weak

 @Dogl0rd:. It is a new product from granite, it might not be an earth shattering new idea but it is new. You saw hope just announced new cranks and stems right...

 Also this looks completely different from the feedback version and the feedback one is +/-4%, so that one is actually useful.

 @Dogl0rd: a) pinkbike doesn't give a shit anymore. B) torque ratchets like this (almost exactly like this in fact) have been around for many years, the reference is the internet and indeed the real world. C) it _is_ a new specific product from GD, but that does not preclude it from being a derivative/clone product that is definitely not worth its own article.

 Hah, I have the feedback one and aside from it being red - the shape/feature similarity was the first thing I thought of. Glad to hear the feedback's more accurate

 @RonSauce: wish I could show you how similar my feedback one looks, but nice to know that I got lucky and have the useful one

 @Dogl0rd: I might have been looking at a different one feedback makes then. Basically granite takes successful ideas and remakes them after there has been a proven market. Their designs are usually their own yet very similar to the original.

 Or a copy of the copy by Katana Tools of the Feedback sports one.
I'm seeing just now, that even the Katana tools knock off is +-4% accurate (www.bike-discount.de/en/katana-tr-1-torque-wrench-1/4-2-10-nm)

 @justinfoil: Yes.

 @justinfoil: Go away.

 You really shouldn't squeeze that much

 Torque it up

 It's the RocknRoll way of doing things: torquing bolts like Pete Townshend slams guitars.