Not too long ago, I got the Minoura Vergo-TF2-WH in-vehicle bicycle transport system to ferry my bike Hyro inside my car, a GD-chassis Honda Jazz. While Hyro fits inside it when hooked up to the Vergo-TF2, his stem has to be loosened and turned about 100 degrees to the left for the Jazz’s hatch to close all the way.
Stem bolts are a classic example of tightening torque being rather critical on a bike, especially so if either your stem or your handlebars are made of carbon fiber. While Hyro currently runs an all-aluminum cockpit, it’s still important to tighten bolts to correct torque, and it’s not always practical to carry a full torque wrench and bit set around.
That’s where this comes in. It’s a preset torque driver from bicycle frame and component manufacturer Ritchey.
This particular TorqKey is calibrated to 5 Nm, which is a very common torque spec for things like stem bolts, cleat bolts, and cable anchor bolts for brakes and derailleurs.
Shorn of its plastic packaging, Ritchey’s TorqKey is an impressively small package. The torque driver itself has a handle shaped like a twist knob. Along its shaft slides on its carrier for the other bits, which are 3/4/5 mm hex keys, a #1 Philips screwdriver bit, and T20 and T25 Torx keys.
The business end of the TorqKey accepts any of these six bits in its shaft. Not only does the shaft have a rather tight, secure hold on the bits, it’s also got a magnet at the base for even better bit security when active.
The TorqKey is a joy to use. With nothing to adjust, all you have to do is swap in the relevant tool bit and twist away until its internal clutch clicks and slips, indicating 5 Nm of torque has been applied to your fastener of choice. The only downside I see is that the internal clutch is a one-way affair. I don’t think you’ll be able to torque a reverse-thread bolt with this.
It certainly beats lugging this full-size torque wrench around for low-torque applications.
The TorqKey and its tool bits now live in the emergency/EDC bag in my Jazz, alongside my second, shorter set of metric hex keys. This way, the Jazz always ready to accommodate Hyro in his cargo hold.
I’m a big advocate of DIY, or “do it yourself.” There’s a certain appeal in getting your hands dirty and working your tools to either maintain, fix, or create. The relative simplicity of the bicycle as a machine lends itself well to DIY, but you do need the right tools. No need to splurge on them in one fell swoop; the toolbox I have was built up over the past three years. I’d like to think I’ve covered the basics with my set, addressing most tasks any cyclist could do on his/her own. Consider this a guide towards building up your own.
Bike stand. It’s very hard to work on your bike when you need to hold it with one hand while you wrench away with another. The first thing I’d suggest buying is a means of turning your bike into a freestanding object. There are many ways of doing this, from humble display stands, to sophisticated folding work stands that either clamp a bike by one of its tubes, or cradle it by its bottom bracket shell. Mine is a simple Minoura DS-30AL display stand, which hooks over the ends of the rear quick release skewer and raises the rear wheel a few inches in mid-air.
My hex keys and Torx keys. Note the ball ends on the hex keys.
Hex keys. Often called by the brand name “Allen,” metric hex keys are indispensable for work on a bike. Don’t cheap out on these; invest in good quality hex keys to avoid rounding bolts and to keep the wrench edges intact for longer. Hex keys with long handles help with grip and allow you to apply torque more easily, while ball ends help speed up the threading of bolts, even from odd angles, until their heads snug up to the surface. The most frequently used sizes are 4, 5 and 6 mm; in fact, 95% of the bolts on my folding bike Bino can be worked on with a 5 mm hex key.
Torx keys. Although not as commonplace, there are bolts that require a Torx key to turn instead of a hex key. The most frequent use of Torx-head bolts is on six-bolt brake disc rotors, which require a T25 key. If you run SRAM components on your bike, some of their derailleurs make use of Torx-head bolts. These bolts can also be found on Zipp and 3T stems as their faceplates clamp down on handlebars. Alternatively, some cyclists have gone to the trouble of replacing their hex bolts with Torx-head ones instead, as they are harder to strip and round.
Chain breaker. While many multitools have a chain breaker built in, I’d recommend a standalone unit for home use, as their oversize handles make them both stronger and easier to use. Chain breakers are essentially press tools, pushing rivets in and out of chain links by consistent application of pressure via a screwed-in driving pin. On more sophisticated chain breakers, this driving pin can be replaced once it wears down.
Torque wrench. Due to the many lightweight aluminum and carbon parts out there, it is critical to tighten them to correct torque, lest you destroy them by crushing or crumpling. It’s very hard to measure torque by feel, so it’s best to leave this to a torque wrench. Basic beam-type torque wrenches have a freestanding secondary beam that deflects against a scale to visually show applied torque. Micrometer-type and preset torque wrenches have a clutch that will let go and click once a set torque value is reached.
Screwdrivers. There aren’t many conventional screws left on a bicycle these days. Their main use is on derailleur limit screws and brake pad retaining bolts for disc brakes. A set of magnet-tipped ones is useful for picking up fallen bolts or screws.
Normal pliers and locking pliers. These are always useful, especially in the long-nose or needle-nose variety. Usual jobs are for pulling on shift or brake inner cables taut as you tighten their anchor bolts down. Locking pliers, also called “vise-grips” or “mole grips,” are a versatile way of maintaining a firm grip on small things.
Rubber mallet vs claw hammer.
Rubber or plastic mallet. Some things on a bike require a bit of “persuasion” to remove, such as cranks and steerer tubes. You don’t really want to damage these components by subjecting them directly to the blows of a conventional claw or ball-peen hammer. A mallet with a rubber or plastic head is the best solution. The surface spreads the impact force of each tap across more of the struck surface, lessening the risk of dents.
A conventional hammer will work better if you’re using another tool to indirectly apply force to a bike component. One such example is a punch or bearing remover to knock out a press-fit headset or bottom bracket.
Park Tool CN-10 cable cutters in action.
Cable cutters. If you work on inner and outer cables, which are made up of wire strands that run lengthwise, you will want to cut them as cleanly as possible to reduce the risk of fraying or crushing the cable. Both are quite bad. Fraying or crushing can mean that your inner cables will not work well with your outer cables. A dedicated pair of cable cutters cuts both by shearing action, increasing the odds of a clean cut. Park Tool’s CN-10 is the old standby for this job, although Pedro’s, Super B and Unior also make their own versions.
Diagonal or side cutters. The only real exception to cable cutters is the cutting of conventional brake outer cable, which, unlike shift housing or inner cables, is spiral-wound. The more effective tool for this is a pair of side cutters. If you’re partial toward woven “compressionless” brake outer cable, cable cutters are better.
If you need to cut hydraulic brake hose, a sharp utility knife is the tool to have.
Park Tool’s HCW-16 is a chain whip and pedal wrench in one tool. Here it’s with the Shimano TL-LR15 cassette lockring tool and an adjustable wrench.
Chain whip and cassette lockring tool. These specialist tools allow you to remove your cassette from your rear wheel’s freehub body. Most versions of the lockring tool are basically large bolts that sink into the splines of a cassette lockring and are turned by an adjustable wrench. Some of them have long integrated handles, which I think is a bonus. Other lockring tools, such as Shimano’s TL-LR15, also come in handy for mounting and removing brake rotors that use Shimano’s Centerlock system instead of the six-bolt system.
(L-R): 15 mm combination wrench; Park Tool HCW-16 chain whip and pedal wrench; Bike Hand tire bead jack; Shimano TL-LR15 cassette lockring tool
Pedal wrench. If your pedals’ spindles come with wrench flats, there’s a good chance they’ll need a 15 mm wrench to tighten or loosen them. Any 15 mm wrench should theoretically work, but there are times when the thickness of a normal or adjustable wrench is just too much to work with. A pedal wrench is usually thinner and better able to tighten or loosen pedals with tight clearances against the crank arm. Alternatively you could use a 15 mm cone wrench for this job. Note that if your wheels have nutted axles, a 15 mm wrench will also work on those.
Chain checker. This, a Park Tool CC-3.2, is a simple “go/no-go” gauge made out of metal and can check for 0.5% and 0.75% wear. Hook one end over a link, and let the other, straight end drop onto another chain link. If it doesn’t fall into a link, your chain is still good; if it does, it’s time to consider replacing it. At 0.75% wear, any further delay in replacing your chain risks wear on your cassette and chainrings as well.
THIS ISN’T QUITE A COMPLETE WORKSHOP…YET
As of this writing, I still need the following tools and supplies to cover all repairs and maintenance:
If you like working on your bike, by now you should be used to turning and tightening bolts with a hex key or Allen wrench. Have you ever wondered that perhaps you’ve turned a bolt too tightly though?
WHAT IS TORQUE?
Most bolts on a bicycle actually have a torque specification. If you don’t remember your basic physics, torque is a measure of rotational force applied to an object along an arm of a given length. Torque is usually expressed in newton-meters (Nm) in the metric system, or pounds-feet (lb-ft) in Imperial measurement. In mechanics’ case, this arm is usually a wrench of some sort.
TORQUE SPECIFICATIONS
Normally you can turn a bolt in by hand until its head becomes flush with (and snugs up against) the surface you’re screwing it into. Once finger-tight, further tightening happens with a wrench, where you apply more and more torque to the bolt. As this happens, the tension also builds up along the length of the bolt you’re tightening, due to the interaction of the threads of the bolt and the receiving object. Exceeding the torque specification for that bolt can mean breaking it clean in half, as the material gives out under the tension. These broken bolts are quite hard to extract.
The stem is one place where tightening to proper torque is usually a big deal.
For the most part, metal parts are quite tolerant of a little excess torque. Torque specifications become really important, however, when you’re dealing with carbon fiber parts. Carbon fiber is a wonderful material, but one thing it’s not strong against is crushing force. If, for example, you have a carbon fiber seatpost and exceed the torque spec on its seatpost clamp, you will almost certainly damage the seatpost. Proper torque is also very important for the parts of a folding bike’s hinge and latch mechanisms, even though they’re made of metal.
TORQUE WRENCH TYPES
The dangers of applying excess torque are why a torque wrench is a worthwhile investment for serious mechanics. There are two general types.
A beam-type torque wrench is a socket wrench with a graduated scale, which you use to read the deflection of a freestanding secondary beam. That beam’s deflection off the main wrench arm is the applied torque. Beam-type torque wrenches are simpler and cheaper, and don’t need any maintenance, but require you to keep an eye on the scale. They’re best used for high-torque applications, such as crank arms and lock rings for cassettes or Centerlock brake rotors. These parts see torque loads in the 35-55 Nm range.
A click-type or micrometer-type torque wrench is different. Like its namesake, the end of the arm has a rotating collar used for measurement. On a micrometer caliper, this widens or narrows the caliper arms; on a micrometer-type torque wrench, it dials in the desired torque value. Once this value is reached, a clutch mechanism will release and give you both the characteristic “click” sound and slight deflection of the arm. Micrometer-type torque wrenches are more suited for the low-torque applications of most other bolts on a bicycle, but they do need periodic recalibration – and proper storage to reduce the need for recalibration.
Ritchey’s TorqKey is an example of a preset torque driver. This is preset to 5 Nm.
A sub-type of micrometer-type torque wrenches is the preset torque driver. These are simpler devices which retain the clicking clutch mechanism, but ditch the adjustability. They are, in essence, made to stop at just one preset torque value, usually the most common 4 or 5 Nm – although Park Tool’s newly released ATD-1 adjustable torque driver has five fixed torque values you can select.
Bike Hand’s torque wrench comes in a blow-molded black plastic box, made to house the wrench itself and all its bits. A metal double-hinge clasp keeps it shut.
The selection of bits should guarantee that it will work with almost any bolt on your bike. On my Vitesse, 95% of its bolts can be worked on with a 5mm hex key. The larger size hex key bits are for use on kickstand mounting bolts (8mm) and freehub bodies (10mm). The 5mm long hex key bit is particularly useful for tightening the clamp band bolts on my TCX SLR 2‘s STI levers, which are slightly obscured by their brake hoods. The T25 Torx bit should be handy for working on brake rotors, as well.
I like that all the bits themselves have a knurled collar around them. This enables you to turn loose bolts in by hand until finger-tight, before bringing in the torque wrench to tighten to correct torque. You press in the button on the head of the torque wrench to fit the bits onto the 1/4″ square drive socket, where they will stay on very securely.
Turning the collar sets the torque, displayed by a moving red column along a vertical graduated scale. This lets you use Bike Hand’s torque wrench on low torque applications such as stem and seatpost bolts, as well as higher torque uses, such as the 15-18 Nm needed to tighten the TCX SLR 2’s saddle clamp.
I find that for torque loads of less than 4 Nm, extra vigilance is needed as the clutch mechanism clicks very softly and the deflection isn’t very noticeable. At 5 Nm and up, the clutch mechanism works much better and more noticeably.
For more instruction on how to properly use a torque wrench, the boys of GCN have a video on it below.
VERDICT
I’ve had this torque wrench for quite a while now, and it’s a reliable tool to have, especially while working on the TCX SLR 2’s seatpost and stem bolts where setting correct bolt torque is critical. At PhP1,800 to PhP2,000, it’s not exactly cheap, but it’s one important tool to have in your arsenal if you’re serious about wrenching on your own bikes.
This article was originally published on the now-defunct United Folding Bikers blog on July 22, 2015. It has since been slightly updated.
the accidental randonneur 