Review: Effetto Mariposa Giustaforza II Pro Mechanical Torque Wrench (UPDATED)

With a range of 10-60 Nm the pro model probably isn’t very useful for cycling (or is the low end a typo?).

Nice bike.

Don’t know if I can count up to 5000… even if you give me a few years to do it.

Harbor Freights sells torque wrenches in the same torque wrenches for $21.99… Good enough for a bike, it’s not like those bolts are holding the rocket engine together. worked at a bike shop for over an year, and never seen any one ever used one.

@Lawrence, yeah what shop is this so I can avoid it, especially if I have carbon pieces on my bike. Admitting you don’t use a torque wrench is admitting you’re the hamfisted sorts that crush my pedal spindles, cassette lockrings and q/rs so tight that the piece strips and/or is bound to the point I can’t remove them.

please do all of your customers a favor and look up the definition of “torque spec” – bikes aren’t jet engines; they don’t need to have their parts tightened to crush values and in fact that’s a good way to destroy expensive parts.

@other anonymous
Price is no guarantee of quality, and actual testing has shown HF to be accurate and work fine. Like LAWRRENCE’s sentiments, bikes aren’t rocket engines. Even when abused, the HF torque wrench was tested accurate within +0/-10% (only minus because the spring wears out), which is more than precise enough for the vast majority of torque specs for bicycle parts, and the fact that it under-torques means there’s virtually no chance of stripping a part.

@Matt
@lonefrontranger
There are a ton of shops that don’t use torque wrench, and many have told me off for using a cheap torque wrench and insisted their arm was better. I think most mechanic arms don’t match the 10% spec of the HF clicky wrench.

Glad to know first hand that my LBS uses a torque wrench religiously.

I’ve wanted one of these for a while.

I have an adjustable torque tool from Nashbar that used for four years. The same exact one is available from several online sights but branded under a different name. I work at a defense company with calibrated torque analyzers. The Nashbar torque tool tested within specs only a few months ago. For bike uses, the cheaper tools will work just fine.

I agree with Robbo. I’ve wrenched bikes for 25+ years . I own a great torque wrench. It sits idle. My wrist tells all. My knowledge and feel is spot on. Tested against the torque wrench many many times to develop a feel. Only accumulated experience will give this feel, that and growing up with a German engineer and tool maker !
That said . The average or aspiring home mech. Should absolutely own and use a torque wrench! Why chance it. Working on Your own rigs is very satisfying , till You crack that nice carbon bar , or strip those soft alum. threads .
Never be afraid to work on your bike.

Dunning–Kruger. Priceless. You win bro!

Torquen Berry
the reason the click style torque wrenches are better then the beam one is because you can set the right torque without it going over. Where as with the beam ones you can easily over torque a bolt

I can’t remember the source of the study or the date, but I remember hearing about a study that found mechanics weren’t as accurate with their finger torque as they think.

Dunning-Kruger……two thumbs up!

I have a 4nm, 5nm, 7nm, and 14nm torque wrench at my bench. Good for stems, other bits, hollowtech cranks, and other assorted items. I bust out the big gun for SRAM cranks which is 50nm or so IIRC.

(deleted)

Torque wrenches are a great idea on a nice clean new thread with a nice clean new bolt free of oxidising and lightly lubricated. Sadly very few parts on my bike would fall into this category so a torque wrench is complete waste of time as the torque specified would never equate to actual clamping force required for stems etc. That said, the length of a most tools is torque restricting by design.

The main difference between the inexpensive torque wrenches and the more expensive is the way they calibrate them. Unfortunately, Park Tool prices their torque wrenches as if they were one of the nicer ones but calibrate them like a low-end torque wrench. The difference is either calibrating +/-4% of the max value of the wrench (low end) or +/- 4% of the displayed value (high end). I think this is where many people end up having mixed results with torque wrenches. For example, if a low-end wrench has a max value of 100 in-lbs, then it’s degree of accuracy is within 4 in-lbs. This isn’t a problem if you need to torque something to 100 in-lbs, however, what if you needed to torque something to 15 in-lbs? Again, the wrench can only do +/- 4% of the max value. So, now you are torquing something that is specified to 15 in-lbs and can be off by 4 in-lbs. That’s a significant amount of variability.

I’m assuming this torque wrench in this article is a higher end one that is calibrated for its accuracy based on the displayed value. That said, it is still way overpriced. I’ll stick with my CDI wrenches that are just as good at half the price.

If you’re not using a torque wrench in a shop, you are doing it wrong. I worked with a guy who insisted that his hand was well-calibrated enough to be a good torque wrench because he did, after all, have 20 years of wrenching in bike shops under his belt. We checked his work with a well-calibrated torque wrench and found, unsurprisingly, that he was way off, almost every time. Maybe it was fine 20 or 25 years ago to not use a torque wrench, but nowadays, with components made of carbon and thin-walled aluminum, torquing those bolts down is worth the hassle. Also, have you ever tried to warranty something that a hamfisted mechanic overtorqued? It doesn’t go well.

A good mechanic obviously knows not to just go crazy tightening everything, but “the perfect torque comes from your hand” is just wrong. The perfect torque comes from a good torque wrench. “Eh, it’s probably fine” comes from your hand. Don’t confuse the two.

Just a heads-up to those using the cheaper torque wrenches out there: the first torque wrench I bought a couple of years ago was Sette brand from Pricepoint. My first indication that it was miscalibrated was when it tore a horizontal across a Thomson stem faceplate. I checked it later using a calibrated 3/8 torque wrench from work and it was incredibly far off…5 NM corresponded to over 12 NM IIRC.

Since then I bought a simple Park TW-1 beam style torque wrench, which I feel more confident about. I’ve since also bought a HF torque wrench, but I always double check it against the TW-1 for a reality check.

Does anyone know of any downsides to the beam style torque wrenches? I realize that they are a little more difficult to read as you are tightening, but I assume that they don’t need calibration unless they get damaged.

BTW, I’m an engineer by trade and just wrench on my own bikes and seldom handle any carbon parts.

I’ve used a torque wrench on aluminum block auto engines for more than 30 years and I use one on the bikes I work on for others and my own as well. Some spend a lot of money on built bikes ($8-10K USD is not uncommon these days- I would NEVER spend that myself!) not to mention serious coin on individual parts. I do not want to risk damaging components or harming someone by over-torquing a component that causes it to fail.

I’ve seen plenty of butchered bike parts: cracked stem caps most often and a smattering of cracked weight weenie parts and severely weakened bolts.

I purchased a Guistaforza II a few years ago on a stupid crazy online web site sale for like $125 then purchased the storage box for like $20.

I have a video review and tool demonstration on my bicycle of the Guistaforza II on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCGRhGoj2GY