Pro tip: Stop torquing your stem bolts in a circle

Was at the shop last week and saw a guy tighten his stem in a clockwise pattern like he was doing the lugnuts on a car. That's how you get uneven preload and a creaky stem after 200 miles. I used to do it too until a old mechanic yelled at me about it. You gotta go criss cross like you're seating a head gasket, then do your final torque in small increments. Any of you guys actually torque to spec or just go by feel?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jason4d ago

Criss cross is the way to go, learned that the hard way on my first build.

dylan_rodriguez4d ago

Man I remember watching my buddy try to do a criss cross pattern with regular tape and he ended up with a huge mess of loops everywhere. Definitely learned from his mistake too, kinda like @the_jason said.