TIL I've been torquing my bottom brackets wrong for 10 years

I was chatting with an old school bike mechanic named Hank at the co-op last Saturday. He asked me what torque I use on Shimano hollowtech BBs and I said 35 Nm like I always have. He just laughed and showed me the actual spec is 39-44 Nm depending on the frame material. Said he sees creaky cranks all the time from people under torquing. I pulled out my own wrench and checked my last build - sure enough I was at 36 Nm. Has anyone else been running their BBs too loose and had to go back and redo everything?

2 comments

2 Comments

valgibson4d ago

I set mine to 40 Nm and never looked back.

allen.ruby4d ago

Valgibson has the right idea at 40 Nm. I bumped mine up to 42 after that same chat with an old mechanic at my shop and the creaking stopped completely.