I've done with and without. That said, I find it very difficult to use my torque wrench on them as they use phillips screws which rely on downward pressure for engagement so you need to be pushing down on the wrench with one hand while turning with the other to try to keep it from popping out of the screw and that in turn also throws off your torque reading to some degree. Swapping to hex or torx screws would alleviate this.

I have a torque wrench and use it religiously on my carbon parts. Been using speedplays since the mid 90s and just use a phillips screwdriver, no worries.

---

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

It's bad enough that I bought that grease gun. Screwdriver here.

A screwdriver is all I use.
And a normal grease gun I got for €10 to lube the bearings from time to time. I have no idea why anyone would spend 3 times the money just to have a Speedplay logo on a grease gun.

Don't forget the license plate holder........

There's a Speedplay license plate holder?

Wow!

Why?

Oh nevermind.....

Oh crap, I need a torque wrench to install this?

---

---------------

"Remember: a bicycle is an elegant and efficient tool designed for seeking out and defeating people who aren't as good as you."

--BikeSnobNYC

Thanks guys, for the information and the laughs.

I wonder how many people understand the content of NASA-STD-5020...

Basically, specifying a torque is only slightly better than not. What thread friction coefficient did the OEM use? What do you currently have on your bike? Bet they're different. When bolt thread friction coefficients, generally, vary from 0.08 to 0.50 there is some variability - not being absurd, that's the variation from an unlubricated cad plated fastener to an unlubricated stainless fastener.

Then there is the running and prevailing torque, debris in the threads, lubricated and unlubricated (even different types of lubrication).

Think your torque wrench is accurate? Maybe it is, likely is less accurate.

Bottom line, whenever your torque wrench pops, you're - probably - within 50% of that value. 5Nm? Could be 2.5 or 7.5. If the person went all weight weenie and changed out the fastener material, best of luck.

So that's fastener torque, but what really matters is fastener preload. You know, that value that can't reliably be measured, even in the lab... Luckily we've been using fasteners a fair amount of time, so we've gotten pretty good at guessing with empirical formulas, but they're guesses nonetheless. So we can get within 50% of the desired torque, as in input to an empirical (read: educated guess) formula.


So, use some common sense and your German torque wrench.

I just use a small syringe to grease mine. Works a treat.

You come close to making it sound as if torque wrenches are a waste of time.

I use a couple of simple beam torque wrenches. Seems the repeatability of this device has to be high, don't think the flexibility of steel changes day to day, nor should any individual such device vary widely from a standard curve.

You mention the variability of dry fasteners, but I never use any fastener on my bike dry, the threads have either grease or loctite depending on the item. Don't doubt that there's a friction difference between grease & loctite, but on a per-item basis the presence of those agents should greatly reduce variability.

The torque figures may not be exact but a lot more repeatable than "feel." I'll continue using my torque wrench, thanks anyway.

Accuracy and precision aren't interchangeable, that was my point.