Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be reviewing the Topeak
Torq stick Pro 4-20 Newton meter torque wrench set. [Music]
Whether you're building bike from the frame up or just need to adjust your saddle position you
should definitely own a torque wrench torque wrenches ensure that the bolts on your bike are
properly secured so that critical components don't come loose mid-ride or you don't ruin an expensive
component by snapping a bolt. In this review we're going to be looking at topek's latest offering
the Torq Stick Pro 4 to 20 Newton meter torque wrench set. As you can see it comes with a nice
case and the packaging just has a simple cardboard sleeve on top of that you can see all the contents
on it with the graphics on here as well as everything that's included on the back side.
So we'll go ahead and take this out of the box and go over those specs
retail price on this is $199.99 so quite expensive but includes a lot of different pieces.
It is a click style torque wrench so once once you reach the desired setting it'll click so you'll
know you're there. It's good for 4 to 20 newton meters which covers a lot of the jobs on a bike
it has a high quality metal finish as well as the plastic case included.
You have nine different Torx bits as you can see here everything from a T6 to a T30
and a nice swivel mount design so I can actually angle this upward to access them and then just
pull them out with this little magnetic slots you have nine different Allen bits as well 1.5 to 10
which again should cover almost all the jobs on your bike. They're color coded for the more
popular ones the four to six what's really cool and about this is you also get a couple extra tools.
You get a reversible ratchet so this actually reverses and it's great to reach those little
tight spots without having to constantly move the tool in and out as it ratchets and it's also
reversible so you can use it to loosen or tighten. You get a little finger bit holder so you can
actually install the bit directly on here and for really tight spots you can just rotate this around
and then tighten it by hand as well as a little extender with a speed sleeve so you can see this
is a little plastic piece on top which lets you hold it and guide it. You can combine these in
quite a few different variations so you can put the extension on the finger bit or on the ratchet
if you want a little bit more leverage so pretty cool design and again everything comes with it so
it is really nice set if you don't have tools or just looking to upgrade your existing set.
In terms of what comes with it obviously you get the torque wrench
some of the calibration information inside here as well as the instruction manual on how to use it.
You get the big torque wrench very similar to the other offerings just a
little extra knurling on here and that extension we talked about. Also the Finger bit the ratchet
as well as the nine Allen bits and nine torque bits. As well as this big plastic case
that makes it nice and portable and easy to store. Now let's take a look at the weight of the entire
package so obviously you're not going to carry this on a bike but it's 632 grams for the full set.
While the torque wrench itself is nicely weighted and without a bit on it comes in at 182 grams.
Now let's take a look at the fit and finish of the Topeak Torq Stick Pro. What's nice
about this is you get a full case and all the bits inside it. Lets start with the case itself it's
a plastic construction you have these nice graphics and different textures on here that
makes it easy to hold. Topeak printed on the top Torq stick Pro underneath that
you have simple plastic clasps that's probably one of the cheapest part about this. It would have
been nice to see something like a metal clasp but you can see it simply slides on there and
then has a little tab on there so you push down locks into place. The bottom has a simple graphic
design as well and then you have the hinges on the back what's great about these hinges
is that they're actually designed to lay flat so you can see it goes all the way and makes
it really easy to work with so you can put this on the ground then access everything you need.
Starting with the torque wrench itself you can see simple design you have these nice bronze color on
the top and then black for the rest of it. It is quite a long torque wrench especially for the 4
to 20 Newton meter range and you can see nice knurling on here. That's what makes it really
feel premium very easy to hold as you have a big surface to adjust it you pull down on the bottom
and then rotate it clockwise or counterclockwise if you want to increase or decrease.
It has a little line indicator to show you when you're in the right spot and then locks into place.
To see what torque setting you're at you can actually just look at that yellow line which
makes it really easy so you can increase that slowly all the way up to the setting you want.
It's only printed in Nm, you don't have the pound foot alternative so you'll have to look that up
but it makes a lot easier to look at what's setting your at.
Torq Stick is printed on here and again really premium looking. This is a click style
torque wrench too so when you're actually reach the setting you want this will slightly shift
compared to the top so you'll feel a little bit of a click it makes it very obvious.
The difference between this and a lot cheaper torque wrenches are the quality of the fit and
finish and then the tolerances so you can see very little play on the torque wrench itself
so it really feels high quality when you use it and you have the confidence you're actually at the
right torque setting. If you use a improperly calibrated one you could easily strip a bolt.
What I really like about this set though are all the additional tools this little
ratchet is probably one of the coolest features. It's very compact and compared
to a normal Allen key which you constantly have to remove install with this you just put it on
there and then quickly loosen or tighten something. It also has a little reversible
head which is very cool and again feels very high quality. It has little play here
this also has a bit holder at the bottom so you can use this in a number of different ways.
So we can install the bit at the bottom of the ratchet and then just kind of rotate it by hand
like a screwdriver you can put it in the ratchet itself and use it like a traditional ratchet.
You can combine the bit with the extension and again this has a sleeve on here so this
lets you hold it and gives you a little bit more security so you can hold it while it's rotating.
You can put this again on the ratchet or flip it around and use this as an extended
sort of screwdriver handle so very cool thoughtful design and a lot of functionality here. Same thing
goes with the finger bit you can attach it directly to the extension or the bit itself
so this is great if you have a compact region or you don't want to use a big torque wrench
or the ratchet. It has nice knurling on here too so easy to hold with the Topica logo
the bits themselves are quite long too so you saw that they're very long in length which lets you
reach a lot of harder to access areas. You have all the sizes you'd really need and perhaps even more.
Some of these sizes aren't that common on bikes but with this you have everything from T6 to T30
so nearly any job you can see the bit holder it's not removable
but it is rotatable so you can rotate it up and access it or leave it at an angle.
Same thing goes with the Allen keys so everything from 1.5 millimeter all the way up to 10
which is really cool so you can see how large that 10 one is
and compared to the base so again should have most jobs covered and they actually color code
four five six which are perhaps one of the most common use cases for your saddle or stem.
So really easy to access and you can quickly identify them it's a really cool set overall.
Obviously it's expensive but having nice tools is really nice to have and if you don't already
have one this gives you pretty much everything you need with a nice carrying case included. [Music]
Now let's take a look at the torque wrench in action it's pretty easy to adjust so you
pull down and then rotate you can see once we hit the line on the center then you actually
at a whole number. To do half number so you can see there's 0.5 so I can go all the way around
and then little increments of 0.1. They're not very obvious but you can feel the indentation
so we'll go ahead and do about five here lock into place and then you can see nice knurling
so you really can hold on to the whole thing and it is a click type so you can hear this
as I tighten this when we reach the maximum amount. You can see the whole body will click.
At lower torque settings it's less obvious and at higher ones it's more obvious but with still the
size of this it's really easy to feel. Here's another good example this is the stem bolts
it says eight newton meters on there so we'll go ahead and bring it up to about eat on here as well
and then find the right bit so we'll swap this out you have everything you
really need. The 4/5/6mm are really the most common so you can see as I'm tighten it
very obvious once I've hit that maximum number and I'll do both sides just to be sure
and that's it. Now one of the cool features of this tool set is the fact that you
get this little finger bit and the extender so this makes the smaller bolts really easy
to access like your water bottle cage so you can see I can try to get in there loosen and tighten
it and I don't have to deal with a big normal L Allen key which will get stuck at the center.
You can also use the ratchet so I can pull this out of the finger bit put it in the reversible
ratchet. Again probably one of the coolest parts about this toolkit is this little ratchet
very convenient small so you can see I can quickly take off the bottle cage reverse it
and then tighten it down and this will take significantly longer with a standard Allen key.
Here's another example of using the little wrench really convenient for those little hard to reach
areas and where a little Allen key would be more annoying because you can quickly ratchet this
to loosen or again reverse it and then loosen the bolt. This one is not torqued so it's better for
both that don't have such critical torque value so I would really use the torque wrench on your stem
seat posts and other places where you can easily strip a bolt and then just use it to finger tight
other things just like your shifter mechanism or other less critical components. [Music]
Now let's compare the Topeak Torq Stick Pro with some other torque wrenches on
the market. We have here is a selection from Pro Bike Tool as well as Topeak.
So you can see with the Torq Stick Pro a pretty similar case to the Pro Bike Tool
offerings. They're both plastic you can see the hinge design is on this much cheaper
just a flexible piece on the back compared to an actual metal hinge there you get with the Topeak.
What I do like about Pro Bike Tool though is the latch so you have this metal latch just feels a
lot more secure and premium and you can see when it locks into place you just simply slide it over
and then you get a nice secure feeling compared to this little plastic tab design of the Topea.
So definitely one minor negative that they could easily resolve by just switching to a mental clasp.
On the inside the Topeak definitely stands out though with just a number of bits
that are included again this is four to 10 while the Pro Bike Tool version
that we have here this one is two to ten so you get a little bit more usable range.
You can go all the way down to two versus four but you can see the quality of the finish
it was definitely nicer on the Topeak so it's a Pro Bike Tool. It's a polished finish you can see
the increments on here a little bit easier than you can with the Topeak. It's hard to really see
what the increments are you can just see the whole number is easier than the half increment
but you can see again just overall finish as much nicer on Topeak. It's a little bit longer too
and have a little bit of a smaller head versus the Pro Bike Tool version.
This one has a very similar adjustment mechanism though you pull down on the sleeve
and then rotate it so they both work equally well obviously Pro Bike Tool is much more affordable
the other difference here is you can see the bits with Pro Bike Tool has a larger driver on here
and a bigger base and then less selection so you have T10 T25 T30 and a couple Allen bits
versus the 18 bits that you go Topeak and all the cool little accessories. They do
have a little storage bin on here with the Pro Bike Tool it's kind of a cool feature but I'm
not quite sure what you put in there. As you go up in torque you do need a bigger torque
wrench we have the other variation here this is 10 to 60 and again you can see metal clasp
and it's just a bigger design overall so you can see compared to this you obviously need a larger
size to accommodate the higher torque setting. You can see some of the flaws on the Finish just a
little paint shipping from the use that we've put into it this one also has foot pound on here which
is kind of nice if you're doing other jobs but for most bike parts it's going to be Newton meter.
We also have the Torq Stick in the smaller variation this is the two to ten
and you can see very similar design. It doesn't come with a full case instead it has this
little plastic attachment with some bits on there so more portable and not quite as fancy looking
but you do have these little fingerprint graphic on here versus all the knurling and this is longer
which makes it a little easier to use while this is a lot smaller with a shorter knurled area.
If you're doing smaller torque values you can also get smaller torque wrenches
this is the Pro Bike Tool four to six option so it's very cool you can only do four to six
and it has the bits attached with this little Carousel design that slides on
and you can also get little pre-specified torque bits themselves so if you're just
doing four all the time you can get a small four Newton meter torque bit
so definitely a lot of options. I think what I like about the Topeak is just the overall
quality is really high so nice fit and finish and a great option if you want to upgrade your tools.
Now let's go over the pros and cons for the Topeak Torq Stick Pro. What we like about it is they get
a full carrying case has a nice anti-slip design well designed hinges and keeps everything in its
place. You also have the nice reversible ratchet which is really precise and versatile and
useful for a little hard to reach bolts where a normal Allen key can be really cumbersome to use.
Also with the 18 bits you have all the Torx and Allen bits you never really need for most jobs.
Some of the negatives for the Torq Stick Pro the fact that it is quite expensive.
So this isn't something to buy for someone on a budget. The bit holders are also not detachable from the case they
just can be angled upward and the 0.1 Newton meter increments on the torque wrench could be
better labeled. You only have the 0.5 Nm labeled and the other ones are just indentations.
Taking everything to account would give the torque wrench a 9.0 out of 10. It's a really
premium complete set that's a great gift for any cyclist or a nice upgrade for your
own garage. Thanks for watching this review don't forget to like and subscribe. You can
see more content from us on our website at thesweetcyclists.com as well as follow us on Instagram
at @TheSweetCyclists. This is The Sweet Cyclist reminding you to enjoy the ride!