Originally Posted by
HillRider
The bike manufacturer's don't publish torque specs but the component makers do. There are tables of recommended torque values for various components on bikes. Here is a spreadsheet Lennard Zinn published:
http://www.velonews.com/media/torque.xls
Note that stem manufacturer's recommended torque values for the steerer and handlebar bolts are probably too high if you are using them on carbon components.
This is a good point. If you're at all concerned about torque, you should check the specs of all the components involved. Usually the torque spec is for the fastener (i.e. bolt), but when you look at things like a carbon seat post, it's often the seat post that gives you a torque spec as opposed to the binder bolt.
For stems there's two other parts you need to check with - the fork steer tube and the handlebar. Your stem will have a spec for tightening, but the handlebar or fork might also have, and it might be less. If it's more, you gotta stick with the smaller of the two because if you over torque a bolt you can not only jeopardize the bolt itself, but also the structure that the bolt is tightening into. More often they (the handlebar and fork) will state something like: refer to stem torque specs.
Just FWIW as I've recently learned about the wild world of carbon parts and accompanying paranoia.