A regular at the shop said my over-torquing habit was the real problem

Last Tuesday this older guy named Ray brought in his commuter with a stripped stem bolt. I started explaining how I always go a bit past spec to be safe, and he just laughed and said "you're not being safe, you're being lazy." He showed me his torque wrench from the 90s with a bent needle and said he'd never stripped a bolt in 40 years because he listens for the creak instead of just cranking down. That hit different because I've been doing this for 6 years and never once questioned my habit, I just blamed cheap bolts or bad threads. I went home and tested my own bike with a proper torque spec, sure enough I'd been over-tightening my stem by about 15 percent this whole time. It made me wonder how many of my customer comebacks were actually my fault. Has anyone else had a moment where a customer taught you something you should have known? Or do you trust your hands over the numbers on a torque wrench?

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blairj5515d ago

Funny thing is, my torque wrench has been gathering dust in the bottom drawer for so long it probably thinks it's a paperweight now... Ray's bent-needle story kinda shook me too, because I've got the same lazy habit of just cranking until it feels "right". Then I found out my "right" was always about two ugga-duggas past the click, which explains a lot about my spare bolt bin. Honestly, half my job is just admitting the bike was fine and I was the one who broke it. Guess I owe Ray a cookie next time he rolls in, assuming I don't strip the lid off the jar first.