i need a torque wrench.

[EEL]

There's one thing people here havent mentioned. Like everything else in life your torque wrench will treat you that same way you treat IT. If you follow the rules you'll be fine if you dont, even a high end craftsman will bite you in the a$$ (this is from personal experience). Following this one simple but utterly important rule below will extend the life of a clicker by ages

1) NEVER LEAVE A TORQUE WRENCH LOADED FOR MORE THAN 5 MINUTES.

This means that if you're doing intermittent work in the garage you should not leave a clicker torque wrench at any setting other than the lowest value noted on the wrench. If for some reason you forget and leave one at a highly loaded value, you will end up overtime screwing up a calibration. I've had my torque wrenches for 4 years now and they still work accurately for all intensive purposes. I forgot once and jacked up a torque wrench. Luckily it was a craftsman so I was able to get it taken care of relatively easily.

[junior varsity]

hadn't even thought about that, and the effect. thanks!

[EEL]

No prob..

Personal opinion on what tools to buy (similar to previous posts)

You need to do some serious thinking on how serious you are about wrenching on your bike. Its kind of a comittment you have to make in advance. When I bought mine, I comitted myself to pretty much doing all the maintenance on all three of my vehicles (2 cars and 1 bike). As a result, I could justify buying decent tools. The long term payback is much greater. That being said, I was forced to buy 3 torque wrenches to cover the entire spectrum of bolts for just the bike.

If you're not sure about this yet are you're "testing the waters" to see if wrenching interests you, I would suggest harbor freight tools to start off. You can get 3 torque wrenches for about 50 bucks. They will work for fine for a while with no issues. Use these until you're ready to make a comittment. Then go buy the good stuff. You'll be out 50 bucks but hey, at least you wont be out 300 if you buy hi quality ones and dont use em. Resale value on tools isnt that great.

Just my opinion.

[junior varsity]

I did the dirty deed on a Craftsman from Sears. Set me back about $80, we'll see how this whole wrenching endeavor goes. (I'm excited, lets put it that way).