Originally Posted by
Kontact
No, you just misunderstood:
YOU were assuming that the ring wasn't tight enough and suggested tightening it a little more in your post. And I'm saying that the ring needs to be at full torque from the get-go, and that adding "a little" might not get it there if you seriously undertightened it in the first place.
And I'm not saying you have to use a torque wrench, I was using torque values to illustrate that Not Tight + A Little More = Too Little Torque.
Unlike washing your hair, bike parts get damaged when not assembled correctly the first time - so I don't know why trial and error would ever be considered an acceptable methodology for tightening drivetrain components. Loose lockrings, loose pedals, loose QRs, loose crank bolts and loose BB cups lead to often expensive damage.
Still in no way did I say something should be tightened less than what it needs to be. And that won't always be the specified torque which many times it just the maximum torque that should be applied or else exceeding that means you are risking damage, deformation and breakage.
However, my advice was for what one should do if they find something loose. And I would think that if one tightened it too loose the first time, then they haven't achieved the level of experience to sense when things are tight enough and about to risk that damage, deformation or breakage. So tightening more than before will give them the experience to continue leaning.
While you make the good point that there will be some damage to the free hub, it isn't life threatening, nor will it necessarily require immediate replacement of the free hub body. It's mainly an ugliness that might make it difficult to remove the cassette and I suppose some rings might clock to a slightly less than perfect position for the optimum shifting that the mfr. built into them.
If I was to use your method of tightening them tight as I could get them without any previous experience of what tight was for a nut or bolt of a particular size, then I'd be breaking the item I'm tightening or the wrench. I've broken more that a few breaker bars. But not on a bicycle.