Torque Tools
Browse used torque tools for sale from riders across the UK, covering both torque wrenches and torque screwdrivers. These set a fastener to a stated figure rather than to feel, which matters most in the 2 to 10Nm band where carbon bars, seatposts and stems live and where a couple of extra newton metres cracks a component. The category suits anyone servicing their own bike with carbon parts, or fitting anything with a printed torque spec on it.
Which torque tool do I actually need?
Match the tool to the range you work in. Most cockpit and seatpost bolts sit between 4 and 6Nm, so a torque screwdriver covering roughly 1 to 8Nm handles the bolts where getting it wrong is expensive. Cassette lockrings at 40Nm, bottom brackets at 35 to 50Nm and disc rotor lockrings need a torque wrench with a proper handle, usually in a 10 to 60Nm range. No single tool does both well: a wrench that reads to 60Nm cannot resolve 3Nm accurately, because accuracy is generally specified as a percentage of reading and the bottom fifth of the scale is where it drifts.
How do these differ from a normal spanner or multi-tool?
A hand tool or a multi-tool transmits whatever force you apply, and hand feel through a short hex key is unreliable — the same person will pull very different figures on the same bolt on different days. Torque tools add a mechanism that either signals or stops at a set figure. They are not a replacement for the rest of the toolbox, though: you still need bottom bracket tools or a lockring splined fitting to give the torque wrench something to drive.
What should I check on a used torque tool?
Ask whether it has been stored wound down. A click-type wrench left dialled to its maximum for a year has a compressed spring and will read high, which is the failure that damages parts. Wind the collar through its full range and check the numbers on the barrel align with the index mark cleanly at both ends. Listen for a definite click with a positive break, not a vague mushy one. Preset screwdrivers that cannot be adjusted are simpler and hold calibration better, but they also cannot be recalibrated if they have drifted. Beam-type wrenches have no spring to tire, so a straight pointer resting on zero with no load is a good sign; a bent pointer arm is not repairable by eye.
Is a used torque tool worth buying, or should I buy new?
The catch with used is that you are buying a measuring instrument with no proof it still measures correctly. That is fine for a beam wrench, where the physics are visible, and reasonable for a click wrench from a seller who can say how it was stored. It is a poor bet for a cheap click wrench of unknown history at 2 to 5Nm, since the error that ruins a carbon steerer is invisible. Budget for calibration if you are buying a click type second-hand — a check costs a meaningful fraction of a mid-range wrench and tells you whether the saving was real.