Torque wrenches have become an increasingly common topic of conversation when talking about fastening lightweight and expensive bicycle components together. And it doesn’t take much trawling through the labyrinth of online stores to see that torque wrenches are one of the more commonly bought cycling tools, too.
The topic of torque wrenches is a big one, and I covered a lot of ground at The Old Place in articles about correct usage and what to look for when buying. In this edition of Threaded, the focus is on a few low-cost adjustable click-type torque wrenches from outside of the cycling world.
For this, I’ve been testing cheap (but well-regarded) options from Amazon, AliExpress, and American discount tool store Harbor Freight. I’ll discuss what spending more may (or may not) get you, and some things to consider. But first, allow me to review these three 1/4" cheap torque wrenches.
Harbor Freight’s Pittsburgh Pro
Harbor Freight will be familiar to anyone reading this from the USA. They’re all over the country and are unbeatable on lowest-cost tools, random automotive supplies, and recalls on car jack stands. Pittsburgh is the company’s house brand of budget hand tools, and frequent sales or stacking of company-provided coupons mean an undeniable deal is rarely far away.
I picked up this 1/4" square drive torque wrench on a sale weekend not for the usual high price of US$19, but rather just US$12 (plus tax). That price gets you a bulky 2.3-22 Nm range torque wrench.
Unfortunately, the 56T ratchet head (likely shared with the 3/8" tool) is so bulbous that the entire wrench is rendered redundant anytime a bolt has limited surrounding clearance – such as with most binder-wedge-based seatpost clamps. Further hurting it for bicycle use is that this wrench is only stamped with Freedom Units (Imperial) and requires your own conversion to the newton-metres printed on most bicycle parts.
If that weren’t enough to skip it, you set the torque by turning the knurled handle and then locking it into place with the base set screw. Unfortunately, this doesn’t hold all that tight, and it is possible to adjust your set torque inadvertently while in use. Plus, when you do hit the desired torque, the wrench almost whispers it to you in an attempt to trick you into over-torquing. Speak up, Pittsburgh!
OK, all of those significant issues aside, it’s impressively good in terms of accuracy. Set to the nearest Freedom-to-the-Eagle unit of 5 Nm, I measured the wrench with a mean average of 5.08 Nm across 10 cycles (4.71 and 5.41 Nm were the min/max). Meanwhile, set at 8 Nm, I got an impressive actual mean average of 7.96 Nm!
Seems you’re not at risk of setting your bike on fire if you use one of these, but I still found the overall form factor to be somewhat limiting.
Amazon Basics
No, this isn’t another Amazon affiliate link article (that’s not what we do here). Instead, I’d seen some positive reviews for other tools in the Amazon Basics range, and this Amazon-branded torque wrench looked to have a proven, familiar design for an impressive price of AU$49 shipped (approx US$32). Just beware, Amazon also has its name on a similar wrench to the Pittsburgh above. Best avoid that one.
This torque wrench has a useful 2.5-15 Nm range, a nice fine-tooth ratcheting head with a locking 1/4" square drive, and a surprisingly high-quality feel. Adjusting the torque can be done after pulling down on the detented sprung collar that stays put while you adjust – a more premium feature. Like with the Pittsburgh, your money gets you the torque wrench and a blow mould case, but it’s BYO sockets.
While not officially claimed to do so, this wrench does click off with a positive sound in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions. It’s also reasonably accurate with a measured mean average of 5.13 Nm (4.71 and 5.55 Nm min/max, though most clicks are closer to an actual 5 Nm) when set to 5 Nm. Meanwhile, at 8 Nm, the wrench was constantly overshooting, with a measured mean average of 9.19 Nm. Good at lower torque, but arguably a fail as the torque increases.
The alignment of the micrometer scale is also ever so slightly off and can be difficult to see in certain light, which doesn't only make setting torque a little more confusing but is a recipe for inadvertently having the wrong torque setting.
It's a shame my sample over-torqued by almost 15% in some settings as it's otherwise a nice tool to use. Perhaps my single sample is a little over-sprung and others are good, but short of buying a bunch more I can’t definitively answer that.
ThinkRider NL-15 Pro, AliExpress’ highest voted
With dozens upon dozens to choose from, it proved a tough task to pick one torque wrench from AliExpress. Finally, I settled on the 2-20 Nm 1/4" square drive wrench from ThinkRider for its most positive reviews at the lowest price.
It arrived with no padding surrounding the blow mould plastic case, and judging by how all 13 of the included 1/4" sockets had been shaken loose, I’d say it had quite the ride. Still, given that those sockets are of a usable quality, and for AU$41.59 (approx US$28) shipped, it’s hard to complain.
Turns out the ThinkRider is extremely similar in form to the Amazon Basics wrench. The ratcheting head, with its 28 mm width and locking square anvil, is identical to the Amazon save for the surface finish. The rest of the wrench is similar, too, but the locking collar is sprung without a detent to hold it in place (making it more annoying to adjust). Meanwhile, that simpler aluminium collar means the wrench is 76 grams lighter, too.
Did we do a good job with this story?
