A truss rod nut IS NOT for hanging on...

[lungimsam]

I gave up carbon bikes after cracking two seat posts- and that with torque wrench. Now I only ride new steel. The human hand is the best torque wrench. Goes for truss rods, too.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

You should see how it is with carbon-fiber framed bicycles. Carbon fiber has great rigidity but poor crush tolerance in a tubular bike frame so *everything* has to be precisely torqued and everything has acceptable torque markings on it. It was quite the change for this guy who last bought a bike during the heydays of chrome-moly and who first learned by working on Schwinns with Vice Grips and Channel Locks. I did get to buy a nice new Effetto Mariposa Giustaforza torque wrench calibrated in Newton-metres, though, so that was fun.

Reminds me of an issue I had with the shifter for my Rohloff hub gear. After a few months use, the clamp securing it broke. It was a simple matter to fit a replacement, but I thought it was an extremely light built and delicate component. Turns out this was a deliberate design feature to protect carbon fibre bars. Rohloff specified a particular torque (which I had obviously greatly exceeded) and made the clamp weak so that it would break before damaging the bar

 

[BradHK]

I gave up carbon bikes after cracking two seat posts- and that with torque wrench. Now I only ride new steel. The human hand is the best torque wrench. Goes for truss rods, too.

I find that bikes are like guitars, different types for different purposes. Vintage steel for Sunday cafe rides, carbon for fast paced group rides or racing, gravel bikes, cyclocross bikes, cross country, etc. I guess that is why I have multiple guitars and bikes. I actually have more bikes than guitars...and I have 18 guitars. I know that number of guitars can be considered a passing phase for some of the LTG members but my wife is starting to push for the “one in - one out” policy.

Sunday cafe ride bike going out later today (no torque wrench required) and carbon race bike (torque wrench required!):

 

[lungimsam]

I’m guessing the Ciocc descends better!!

 

[gjmalcyon]

Or even worse having to use a heli-coil! Gotta love those old BMW Motorcycles. Easy to work on but I agree, torque wrench required. This is my BMW that I wrench on (with a torque wrench of course )

Steel bolts going into aluminum threads. What could possibly go wrong? I think I had one (any only one, thankfully) Heli-coil incident with my R100RT. And of course that was pre-torque wrench.

 

[Midnight Toker]

On the other side of the coin, I have done a few setups on friend's vintage instruments, including a 66' Tele, which had a truss rod that was so loose It wasn't even functional. A total whammy bar for a neck, ala Adrian Belew. The guitar was practically unplayable when I got it.