Technical > General Technical
They should give a torque wrench away with a Rohloff hub gearbox
Andre Jute:
Anyone with a Rohloff bike -- and I specifically include even cyclists of vast experience -- should have a low-range torque wrench because the Rohloff fastening ratings are too low to distinguish by fingerspitzengefuehl, and use it everywhere on the bike because the general trend, except for around and between the pedals but especially for ever-more-expensive components, is for lower tightening torque. A decent quality of 1/4in drive torque wrench of which I and others on this board have experience is the BBB BTL-73, which covers 2-14Nm and is widely available for about fifty quid with a travel case to house the bits. Note that this is in fact a BBB-branded generic torque wrench easily found branded by others at a considerable saving. This one is from X-Tools and sold by Wiggle for a third less:
http://www.wiggle.com/x-tools-essential-torque-wrench-set/
This BBB TL-73 torque wrench, and its generic siblings under other brands, has been found to give consistent service by many cyclists; I've had one for years, buying it from a bike shop's worktable out back when they didn't have a new one in stock for me; when I checked a month or so later, I discovered they had replaced it with the same. Good enough for professionals is good enough for me.
SJS has several beautiful torque wrenches at
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/search/?term=torque%20wrench
but at the lower-price end of the wide-range torque wrenches they stock the M-Part appears to be a relative (maybe better?) of our generic, widely applauded, torque wrench above.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tools/mpart-torque-wrench/
Whichever set you buy, you will have to buy additional bits to make up the following set, some of them essential to the needs of the Rohloff HGB:
Hex 2mm, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 and possibly 8 or 10mm
Torx T20 for the Rohloff
Phillips No 2 (or whatever is required by any crosshead screws on your bike, which you should anyway replace with hex head socket screws)
Socket 8mm for changing gears if you have the EXT version of the Rohloff
Extension bar to use where you don't have clearance for the ratchet head
In addition you will need, though less urgently, an automobile type torque wrench for higher settings, to give reliable readings in the middle of its range up to about 35-40Nm. "Less urgently" than the smaller torque wrench because there's generally a fair bit of breathing space around the higher settings, and you can usually just torque up the crank bolts, for instance, by blocking one pedal against a lamppost and standing up on the spanner attached to the other-side crank bolt, and that will be around 33Nm. (Not exactly rocket science engineering but it worked for generations of cyclists and LBSs who didn't even know what a torque wrench was.) This exception doesn't apply to carbon bikes, of course. Mine is a standard automobile tool left over from my hot-rodding days. You won't be carrying this one on the bike, so it doesn't matter if it weighs a lot.
I also have a Park Tools swing pointer (called a "beam") torque wrench, no longer made, but an amazingly accurate tool, and it has the huge advantage, at the higher fastening torques, of a handle long enough to do high-torque tightening job right without straining your back, and the readings are quick and easy in whatever tightening measure you need, without the need for mental arithmetic because the scale is universal and seen all at once. If you can get a beam torque wrench in new old stock (NOS) or that hasn't been abused too much, you can buy it and calibrate it against a mate's fancier torque wrench to make up a table of adjustments to readings if necessary; very likely not required as these things last an impressively long time.
If anyone else has a fave torque wrench, please do mention it.
mickeg:
I recently bought a Ocarina Torque Wrench (google it or enter that as a search in Ebay), I find it works well. But I rarely use a torque wrench so have not used it much.
I am in USA were we do not have a national VAT, so any price I cite would not be applicable to those of you across the pond.
I can't imagine what you are doing on a Rohloff that requires a torque wrench. Mine has the EX box, anything that requires a torque wrench I would rather leave up to the people that know Rohloff innards.
I also have a big one with half inch drive that I often use for my crank arm bolts, but that is about the only thing I use it for.
In general terms I usually believe that if you do not know how to use a tool, you might be better off not owning it. And since torque wrenches should be used as directed (sometimes with lube on the threads, sometimes without, etc.), thus you could easily mess up if you were not diligent about proper specifications.
Danneaux:
The Rohloff manual has a full listing of torque values in the text for common user-serviceable items (as on page 81-82 for the EX shift-box) and also on page 124 of this download:
https://www.rohloff.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Manual_2017_11_web_En.pdf
Twist shifter clamp torque calls for lightly greasing the mounting screws and then torquing them to 1Nm/8in.lbs. (page 73 in the PDF at the link above).
Best,
Dan.
John Saxby:
+1 for the BBB wrench, Andre (which I bought on your recommendation.)
One item to add to the sockets which come with the BBB, however, is a 1/4 drive 15 mm socket for the EBB fixing bolts on a Thorn.
I use the the BBB in different places on my Raven: front and rear hub skewers (whenever I remove & replace a wheel); once only so far, for torquing the five screws on the Rohloff's axle plate (3 Nm); the EBB fixing bolts (once, maybe twice a year, when I adjust the chain tension); seat-tube bolt (occasionally, just to make sure I have the value right); stem bolt & bar clamp bolts.
I do have an inexpensive long-handled torque wrench with a pointer gauge, which I use occasionally for things like the crank arm fixing bolts. Those things can do a lot of damage, and I wouldn't really recommend using one on a bicycle. I bought this item some years back for motorcycle applications--from Canadian Tire, of all places, a source I hesitate to mention, but in defence, yer honner, it was while they still sold spare parts and proper tools.
Of sentimental value--if "sentimental" is the word I want--is a set of "Iron Bull" brand sockets I bought in Zambia in 1975. (From OK Bazaars, Andre -- that'll take you back!) Made in China, these appeared on the Zambian market around the time when China was establishing its presence in Central Africa by building the railway from the Copperbelt to Dar-es-Salaam. No torque wrench in that kit, but the whole thing is close to indestructible, and has a set of sockets from 10 mm up to 27 (!!)
B cereus:
I do have a BBB clone torque wrench but I also have a beam type Topeak wrench which I find very useful.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/topeak-combo-torq-wrench/rp-prod137802
Mechanical type torque wrenches are excellent but can go out of adjustment and should be recalibrated from time to time. Beam type wrenches operate on a very simple principle and are usually sufficiently accurate for most purposes, and give reproducible results which defy their modest price tag.
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