Originally Posted by
gmason
In the very late 1950s and early 1960s I was very much into sportscar racing. As a pit crew and mechanic, not a driver (which I still lament). I worked on a lot of cars - mine and other people's. Theirs were always
much more expensive than mine.
These torque wrench discussions always make me wonder what the owner of the 250TR Ferrari, SWB Berlinetta, or Lotus 18 I was working on would have said when I told him that I was using common sense when I stripped out the threads in one of those beautiful cylinder heads, or the body of a 40DCOE Weber carb while I was reassembling it.
Well, everything is relative. Tightening a bolt on a bicycle handlebar is considerably different from working on a 250T Ferrari cylinder head.
When I said "you don't need a torque wrench, you need more common sense", I did not mean it in a demeaning way. Maybe I should have said, "you need more experience", or you need more, "hand finesse".
You can't be much of a mechanic if you have to rely on a torque wrench for every bolt you tighten on a bicycle - where does it end? How do you tighten spokes without a special tool or know if you have the rear carrier nut on tight enough? It is something like a chef who has to rely on the recipe and a measuring spoon to add seasoning. You simply need to be able to go by feel at some point.