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Shoutout to the shop cat at Bicycle Habitat who made me realize I've been over-torquing carbon stems for 6 years
Old stray kept rubbing against my torque wrench while I was rebuilding a customer's fork and I loosened it up to spec on a whim, now I'm wondering how many cracked steerers I could have saved if I'd listened to a cat sooner, anyone else had a shop animal call them out on bad habits?
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parkernelson4mo ago
My old shop had this scrappy orange tabby that would always sit on the torque wrench drawer. One day he kept pawing at it while I was setting up a customer's carbon bars so I finally gave in and checked the setting. Turned out I was running 7nm on a stem that spec'd 5nm. That cat saved me from what probably would have been a cracked steerer down the line. Now I make it a habit to double check torque settings every time I touch carbon parts no matter what. Honestly animals just have a sixth sense for when things are off.
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troy_gibson434mo ago
Gonna push back a little here @parkernelson - are you sure the cat actually knew the torque was off or did it just like the attention and warmth from the drawer? lol Ive seen shop cats do some wild stuff for no reason at all. My buddy had one that would sit on random boxes for weeks then one day just peed on a customers fork. But hey if it made you double check your numbers then thats what matters. Still funny to think about a cat being a better torque auditor than some mechanics Ive worked with.
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