Mountain Biking - torque wrench?

I have been working on my mtn. bike lately and keep seeing torque numbers for almost everything.

I don't own a torque wrench.

can I use the same torque wrench and just change out the alen wrench or socket?
or do I need a torque wrench for all my wrenches?

does that make sense?

thanks

you can get socketed hex keys for a torque wrench. heres some from park tools

http://www.parktool.com/images/tools/TWB_1.jpg

cool. thanks

Be sure to get a torque wrench that measures accuractely enough. Most that you would buy in a hardware store measure huge numbers in comparrison to some of the torque required on a mtb

yeah, you need something that goes to inch-pounds and not foot-lbs.

good to know. I shurely(sp?) would have gotten the wrong one.

thanks again!

I don't believe bike's components need to be torqued. It's for complete illiterates that never tightened a nut.
Nuts just need to be tightened securely, and parts where adjustment is needed (hubs, cables etc ) torque will not help anyway...
I wouldnt waste my money on a torque wrench to use it on the bicycle.

Originally posted by pnj
good to know. I shurely(sp?) would have gotten the wrong one.

thanks again!

no h, just surely.

I think the same thing. I have been working on my own bike for 20 years but that was a bmx bike. now I'm riding a mtn. bike while my body heals up from the bmx destruction and some bolts I don't know how tight to tighten.

such as the lower nut on my marzochi(sp?) fork(s). if I undertighten it leaks oil.
but I can snap the bolt easily because it's aluminum. so how much to tighten?

cranks, stems, brakes I tighten up snug and leave it at that. but they aren't going to leak oil all over my carpet.

see where I'm coming from?

i guess the feel of when the thread is going to break comes from experience of breaking some of them... I am pretty sure that people who work on bicycles as their job, don't use toruqe wrenches most of the time...
At least automechanics don't, where they need to...

well, I snapped the bolt on my fork that's why i mentioned it. but then again, i was drinking.....:) I only snapped one side though.

I can pretty much tell when to tighten stuff but I keep reading about the torque in my manuals for all the cr@p on my mtn. bike and my mind got to thinking...

I don't use torque wrenches.. and never had any problems.

The torque wrench is handy for even experienced mechanics. It is easy to damage threads on something like disc hub rotor bolts. You might strip the threads out of the hub. The damage might not show until the second or third time you install them.
You can tighten and loosen nuts with a crescent wrench but that does not mean you are doing the right thing. I often have to file the damaged edges of nuts and capscrews to get my tools(The correct ones) to fit. People think they are doing it right when they are progressivly scewing it up.