Winstanley's bikes Question?!?!

I was merely pointing out that buying from Winstanleys you *should* get more than just a flat packed bike straight from a mail order warehouse. The price would be the same whether you went in the shop or not. It is not a good price purely because they don't have shop space to fund.

I rarely use my torque wrench any more, besides I doubt it’s properly calibrated after a few years. They can get amateurs in trouble by thinking they need to torque all the way to the number printed - it’s a limit, not a target. Also the limit of the thing you’re torquing, eg a stem, doesn’t bear any relation to the thing it’s torquing to, eg the steerer tube. How does 3T know that the steerer tube you’ve got will be happy with 5Nm?

@iandusd - full points for ingenuity, but I prefer carrying one of these: https://www.topeak.com/global/en/products/torq-tools/840-nano-torqbit-5nm

If I was assembling bikes all day long (as I once did) I would buy a very expensive torque wrench. For home use I  have a cheap beam type torque wrench like this one

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Topeak-Combo-Torq-Wrench-Set_61547.htm

Beam torque wrenches are totally reliable and accurate if they have been properly made. I bought one from Decathlon and tested it for calibration and found it to be spot on. 

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/100-cycling-torque-spanner-id_8402082.html

Be sure to only use beam wrenches for tightening otherwise you will upset the calibration.

BTW if you're stuck for a torque wrench and need to tighten your seat bolt, for example, to a given torque setting you can improvise. 

1 Nm is a force 0.102Kg  (but for our purposes we'll say 0.1) applied on a lever at a length of 1 meter. So for a setting of say 5Nm we need to apply 500g at 1 meter which is the same as applying 5Kg at 10cm. So find a 5Kg weight (a large container that you can fill with water) and hang it from an allen key in the seat bolt at a distance of 10cm from the bolt centre. Be sure to have the allen key horizontal when making the final setting. This sounds tricky but is easier than it sounds. The trick is to lift the bike off the ground and turn the bike to tighten the seat bolt until it will hold the weight with the allen key horizontal. This is actually the most accurate way of setting torque and a good way to check the calibration of your torque wrench.

You can use other weights using a bit of maths. When I need to do this I happend to have a 4Kg kettle weight so I suspended the weight at 12.5cm to get a force of 5Nm. 

Let's be clear, Winstanleys IS a bricks and mortar shop!

I've had a few bikes from them, the first time i was offered a £30 discount if I wanted to collect it unbuilt (yes, please! I'm fine building my own bike, always have been).

Mail order, I'd expect to have to fit the wheels, pedals and perhaps turn the bars.

I have had bikes mail order where I've also had to wrap the bar tape myself and at the other end of the scale only had to turn the bars and fit pedals.

It would be fully built for the same price if you collected it from their shop, so i'd guess they probably offset the postage costs against minimising the assembly they themselves have to do?

Mine from wiggle just needed handlebars putting on and seat adjusting...

Going off on a slight tangent, is it carbon fibre that makes a torque wrench so important?

I've never owned a CF bike or a TW - but my allened-and-spannered bits haven't been obviously too tight nor fallen off in 25 years of riding.

+ 1 for getting a torque wrench.

They don't have to be to expensive and can go a long way to avoiding whoops-bugger! moments.

• https://www.tredz.co.uk/.M-Part-Torque-Wrench_45214.htm

(As an example rather than an explicit recomend)

I enjoyed building up my bike when it came in various bits in the box... part of the 'bonding process', not to mention good knowledge when I had to partially dismantle it again to put in a bike box for overseas travel.

The only thing that could possibly go wrong in my view is torque settings, and if you are not confident, invest in a nice torque driver which will always come in handy.

I used a basic Topeak one, which it now turns out from reviews is rubbish, but so far nothing has broken or fallen off...

I purchased my Croix de Fer from Winstanleys (who I’d recommend)

The assembly required was pretty much as described by Don Simon: Wheels, Handlebars & Pedals. Neither Brakes or Gears required adjustment.

There is no catch, bikes bought not from a bricks and mortar shop will not come fully assembled, this is how it's always been. So Winstanley's mechanics might only have given it a PDI beforehand to check the basics, they won't have had any dealings in putting the bike together as what you see in the box as that'll be done at the factory/assembly plant. 

If you're not confident of putting it together most definitely take it to a shop.

Define unbuilt. Bikes will be packaged and sent in the smallest boxes possible, so wheels will be removed, pedals will be removed, handlebars will be removed, maybe even the chainset.

It should, however, just bolt back together (to the correct torque settings, obvs, and no, I don't have a torque wrench. I do have several bikes which I generally maintain myself and a couple that I've built up.) and be riden away.

A picture of how unbuilt it is might be useful.