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I always thought a 5mm hex was fine for brake caliper bolts
A guy at the shop in Tacoma told me I was rounding them out by using the short end of my L-wrench. He said to only use the long end for enough torque, and to check them at 8 Nm, not just 'tight'. I mean, I'd been doing it my way for years, but after he showed me a few chewed-up bolts from other bikes, I switched. Now I keep a torque wrench set to 8 on my bench just for those. Anyone else have a simple tip that saved a bunch of parts?
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sethp263mo agoTop Commenter
Ever feel like you're the last one to learn something basic? I torqued a stem bolt right through a carbon steerer once... that was a very quiet, expensive lesson. Now I just assume I don't know the right tightness for anything.
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riley_garcia3mo ago
Okay but is that really a lesson you need to keep learning forever? A torque wrench is like twenty bucks and then you just look up the spec. It's not some deep mystery after the first time.
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betty1441mo ago
That 8 Nm spec is the real eye opener. I used to just send it with a standard wrench and hope for the best. Now I have a beam style torque wrench that lives on my pegboard, right next to the brake cleaner. It's not even about being fancy, it's just that guessing 'tight' costs way more than a twenty dollar tool in the long run. Plus, that shop guy in Tacoma sounds like a life saver, I wish someone had told me that years ago.
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