Looking for a torque wrench in Taipei–want to avoid damaging pricey carbon fiber bits and suspension bearings on my mountain bike. Yes, I searched the forums; only a thread on how to say torque wrench in Chinese. So far I’ve looked for one at B&Q, the 2-story hardware shop across from the Luzhangli MRT station and at a Yellow Hat auto parts store. No success; in fact, can’t remember ever seeing one in use at a scooter/motorcycle shop here. Taiwanese mechanics must have well-calibrated hands…
Interesting timing you starting this thread. I’m looking for one too and my first port of call was going to be B&Q, followed by that shop at Liuzhangli. Thanks for saving me the trips.
I hope someone here knows the answer.
Many local tool stores carry torque wrenches, but usually inaccurate cheapo ones in ranges suited to auto/moto applications and with 1/2" socket heads… For low torque range bicycle applications (+/- 2-20 Nm) you’d probably need to order one from a bike shop, or be extremely lucky finding a specialist tool supplier shop selling to the trade… Either way, for a good one expect to pay NT$5k and up, low range accurate torque wrenches aren’t cheap… Sorry I can’t offer Taipei-centric specifics…
This one from Ritchey is perfect, but pricey…
ritcheylogic.com/dyn_prod.ph … 16&k=97993
This one in the lowest 5-25Nm range looks like it may suite, but who knows how well made it is and 3/8" head can be a hassle unless you’ve got common bicycle size 3/8" hex and torx sockets lying around…
tw.f2.page.bid.yahoo.com/tw/auction/b45914597
[quote=“plasmatron”]Many local tool stores carry torque wrenches, but usually inaccurate cheapo ones in ranges suited to auto/moto applications and with 1/2" socket heads… For low torque range bicycle applications (+/- 2-20 Nm) you’d probably need to order one from a bike shop, or be extremely lucky finding a specialist tool supplier shop selling to the trade… Either way, expect to pay NT$5k and up, low range accurate torque wrenches aren’t cheap… Sorry I can’t offer Taipei-centric specifics…
This one from Ritchey is great…
ritcheylogic.com/dyn_prod.ph … 16&k=97993[/quote]
Fook me, I’m not naïve about the price of tools, but that’s a bit more than I was hoping to pay.
Yep… I know the product manager who works for Ritchey here in Taichung… A couple of years back he was asking me if I knew any good suppliers that have low range torque wrenches… I guess they must have given up and sourced that one from Italy, hence the price… I’ve got a hunch Chaon might be able to offer a good suggestion, since this kind of thing is his speciality (or one of them at any rate)…
I think I may end up going for something more like this basic offering from Parktools:
performancebike.com/shop/pro … ?SKU=11387
… if I can get my useless local bike shop to order me one, that is.
Yeh, 2nd that fook me, that Ritchey is pricey! Saw the Park wrench, but figure if I’m going to have to order from outside of Taiwan, I’ll go for this one from Sears:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00944978000P?vName=Tools&cName=MechanicsTools&sName=Torque%20Wrenches&psid=FROOGLE01&sid=IDx20070921x00003a
It’s a Craftsman; goes from 0 to 75 ft. lbs./0 to 100 Nm. Most of the torque values I need are low; wonder how accurate this will be for those?
Irish, I met you once hiking with Joesax. You still riding these days?
Just off the phone to sun-tool.com/english.html for you and they tell me they have a torque wrench suitable for bicycle use for 1,600nt produced by, and I’m sorry if I cannot interpret his English clearly on the phone: “King Tony”
I’m not sure if he refers to the top item: sun-tool.com/item/other-6.html
His address is:
Huan Hu South road, Section 1, No 232
Telephone: (02)2361-7382
台北市環河南路一段232號. 電話:(02)2361-7382
I hope that helps.
Thx for the lead, Sulavaca. Will go to pay my respects to King Tony and report back
That was very decent of you sulavaca. Thanks.
Thanks Sulavaca… The “American made” (kind of dubious) 3-20Nm 006-004 version in your link has the right range, but is listed at NT$5,500… No indication of the NT$1,600 bike suitable one you mention… I’ll be interested to see what NT$1,600 buys you in a low range torque wrench…
I popped out to a couple of bike shops at lunch. One (a big RST bike shop) didn’t have any in stock, but can order me in a Parktools one. They’ll phone me the price, but I saw 1700 written in pen in their catalogue. The second shop had a nice SuperB one with the dial in the grip. Actually it was VERY nice, but it would cost 3600nt and they’d have to order it for me. I like SuperB stuff, btw. Very reasonably priced and more than sufficient for the home repair person.
The guy in the second shop was very apologetic about the price of the SuperB, btw, and suggested looking along “se feng jie” out the back of Taipei Main Station. Anyone know anything about this street, or how to write it correctly?
Went in search of torque wrenches on on HuanHe Rd. today (thx again for the help, Sulavaca). Amazing street–pure p0rn if you like to fondle hardware. Didn’t see a wrench with a brand I recognized at either of the Sun Noon/Sun Joon stores, so I picked a cheap NT$900 one up at a shop just up the street (#158 HuanHe Sec. 1). Range on it is 20-200 in/lbs. Figure that will at least get me in the neighborhood of the readings I need til I go back to the US to visit in July. I’ll probably buy a Park or Craftsman then, so if anyone else wants one let me know and I’ll be the mule.
Cool. I need to tighten my bolts to approx 10nm, which is about 88lbs/in (please correct me if I’m wrong [and I assume you mean lbs/in, not in/lbs]), so that 900nt wrench you picked up would be perfect.
Thanks for the address. I’ll check that out at the weekend.
Torque is force times distance, ie. newton metres (Nm) You can multiply them the other way of course, but the symbol (mN) can be confused with a millinewton. Before you ask, a metre newton would be written m·N.
The correct imperial unit is the bushel-furlong (that’s not a minus sign, it’s an illogical symbol used that is made up as you go along in imperial measurements )
[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”]Torque is force times distance, ie. newton metres (Nm) You can multiply them the other way of course, but the symbol (mN) can be confused with a millinewton. Before you ask, a metre newton would be written m·N.
The correct imperial unit is the bushel-furlong (that’s not a minus sign, it’s an illogical symbol used that is made up as you go along in imperial measurements )[/quote]
Ahh… of course. So it should be lbs-in.
Incidentally, I got the same wrench as Quick on Saturday. Thanks to everyone for your help.