That's
inch-pounds rather than foot-pounds.
And unless he's good at math he should get one marked in metric, or newton-meters (Nm).
An inch-pounds scale is really useful only on small or carbon parts. For BBs and lock rings I use a big ole 1/2" drive. 3/8" is a fair compromise.
Beam types are more fragile, as you pointed out, and can be read incorrectly. But digital is way overkill and frankly has the same problems. I recommend a clicker type. Harbor Freight cheapos ($20) are all you need.
yeah, inch POUNDS...that was a weird thing I said "foot inches"? Not sure where my pee brain was when I wrote that.
Actually the clicker type while pretty good is not as good as the dial type I mentioned, but if all it's going to be used for is on a bicycle then the cheap clicker from Harbor Freight will be adequate though not as accurate as more expensive ones, other problem is that the Harbor Freight probably won't go as low on the torque settings as he needs on his bike, he would have to go there and see how low they can go. He will need a unit that can go down to 25 inch pounds for his min requirement of 3nm (if I remember my calculations right). Thus at 25 inch pounds you would have to convert that to 2.08 for the low side on a foot pound torque wrench (again if I remember my calculations correctly).