I just had bought a Kilo TT a few weeks ago. I needed to change the chain ring to gear it down a bit. The chain ring bolts have thread locker on them! I bought the $4 tool. Bent the teeth on the tool removing 3 of the 5 bolts. The two remaining bolts had to be drilled out. Thankfully I had another set of bolts to use.

This is all.

ya, those chainring tools don't put up much of a fight, do they?

glad to hear you got them off, anyway...

save yourself from future headaches, get some proper chainring bolts. steel that use hex on both sides.

People thought I was nuts when I suggested in an earlier thread that lock-tite was used. I gots pics to prove it now!

But you are right, a lesson learned and all is well.

It is extremely odd for a new bike to arrive with Loctite on the chainring bolts (but this is BD we're talking about here).

Was the thread locker blue or white? If so, you really shouldn't have had so much trouble even if it was present.

Scrod... I'll get pics.

Bet they had a few complaints about loose chainrings and, rather than teach the assemblers how to do the job properly, they chose this route.

There is nothing so simple that occ health and safety 'experts' can't make it complicated.

I'll bet I could have removed those bolts with my air impact wrench without drilling them out.

Let's make this a pissing contest.

Bet I coulda got em out with a heatgun and a can of liquid wrench.

Impact wrench is a lot faster. Time is money, son.

I would have been able to get them off with a longer 5mm hex wrench.

I think my 3/8th impact is like 240 ft/lb, should loosen those bolts in no time!

Also, small propane torches are awesome for breaking loctited bolts.

Imnpact wrenches could also strip stuff if you don't know what you're doing.

It was more of a joke, I would never take that impact to a bike. It's for lugnuts and frame bolts.

The wrench torque is only relevant if you are tightening something. When you loosen something, the torque is limited by the tightness of the bolt, and you are no more likely to damage it with an impact wrench than you are with any other type of wrench.