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A customer in my shop said something about torque wrenches that stuck with me
He was a retired machinist picking up his road bike. I was finishing the stem bolts and mentioned I always check them with my Park Tool TW-5. He watched for a second and said, 'You trust that click more than your fingers, but your fingers learned on loose headsets and cracked stems.' It hit different because I realized I've been leaning on the tool to avoid the feel. For the last three builds, I've torqued to spec, then backed it off and tried to set it by hand first. I'm slower, but I'm relearning. Has anyone else had a simple comment make you question a basic habit like that?
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kelly.emma4d ago
Oh man, that's the kind of thing that makes you stop and stare at your own hands like they're strangers. @hannah240 I guess your bigger picture point is that we're all just swapping one habit for another and pretending it's wisdom. Next thing you know I'll be filing my own chainrings by hand because a machine told me to trust its spinning. How long before we start arguing that a ruler is lying to us about the length of a steering stem?
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