Just bought new set of Answer Carbon EXPERT bars for my son's 20" bmx bike. The torque spec is 50 ft. lbs, we cant even come close to recommendation...... without them being crushed. Has anyone else had problems with the bars not staying tight??

Are you sure it isn't 50 newton meters or 50 inch pounds? I'm betting on that it converts to 11 1/4 foot pounds.

It's a ****ty day when you have to use a torque wrench to get your handlebars on. Crank that **** down.

Has to be some inch/foot confusion going on in the original post. 50 inch-pounds works out to 5.6 Newton-meters, which is about right for stem bolts. The OP probably misread inch-pounds as foot-pounds.

I've never actually read torque specs for bike stuff. I just tighten it until it holds. But I guess with carbon bars (eeek) I would.

With carbon and thin aluminum parts that are safety critical, I like to have specs so that I can stay within them. (I don't always torque to the maximum). If I don't have specs available for, say, a stem faceplate, then I'll use a torque wrench anyway just to ensure that all four bolts are evenly tight.

For those of you gear junkies, there is a cool site to see broken and busted carbon bikes and parts. Cool pics.

https://www.bustedcarbon.com/