Bill, thanks for bringing up the tendency among home mechanics to over-tighten fittings on bikes. I suspect I fall into this group at times, and I’m wondering if you or other experienced mechanics might offer some other examples like this one of the grub screw that are frequently found to be too tight on bikes set up by the autodidact set.
I realize that hand feel, as well as material strength and design, are tough to describe textually or comprehensively, but if you have any other tips I’d appreciate it. I appreciated learning, for instance, the trick of tightening quick release levers on wheels so that they make a slight indent on your palm when closing. One can also check that the quick release isn’t so tight that it stops the hub from oscillating back and forth after spinning away it’s momentum in the stand. What about quill stem bolts? I’ve read it’s preferable that brake levers are not so tight that they can’t rotate and break if the bike crashes or falls over. Is the same true with stem bolts? Not so tight that the wedge damages the steerer tube, but just tight enough that handlebar doesn’t rotate in clamp or stem within steerer tube? Certain vintage seat post bolts can break if over tightened. That’s an object lesson you hope you only have to learn once. Any other examples that spring to mind? Thanks, Leif in Chicago P.S. In a previous thread about a Tektro straddle cable that features two grub screws, Bill Lindsay wrote: “Given most home mechanics' tendency to radically overtighten everything, I worry about people damaging their straddle cable by overtightening these unnecessary grub screws.” -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/06134af9-506e-41c0-baf6-bb969c1660bb%40googlegroups.com.
