Originally Posted by
DaveSSS
Those whining about the sensitivity of small fasteners should try a real-world test to prove to yourself that it should take 2-3 times the suggested torque to strip a thread or break a bolt. Most small fasteners are M5. You have to be a complete idiot to break one of these bolts or strip the aluminum threads in a stem, unless the bolts or stem threads are defective to start with.
If an M5 bolt breaks at only 10Nm, it was a piece of junk to start with.
As a real world test, I've taken M5 stainless steel bolts, slid on a stack of washers, then installed a nut and used a long-handled hex wrench to deliberately overtighten the bolt. It's really hard to twist one off, but I've deformed the threads with extreme efforts. With a short handled or Y-style hex wrench, there's no excuse for a broken bolt or stripped threads.
I still say that if you can't adjust your saddle height or handlebar angle out on the road, you're not much of a mechanic.
That's some pretty terrible advice. The manufacturers provide those torque settings for a reason. Just because you didn't twist the head off a bolt doesn't mean that you didn't damage the bolt or the threads. Add the stress of being over-torqued to the stress of normal riding, and you are asking that bolt to bear a load that it was not designed to do.
Get the torque wrench and use it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't develop a feel for the correct torque settings for roadside service, but whenever I have to tighten a bolt on the road I always make sure it is torqued to the correct settings when I am back in my garage.