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As per my troubleshooting to find a bike creak (Ultegra FC-R8000 Right Crank Arm Creak) - I have installed and removed the same chainring bolts ~8 times. In the process I snapped one of them. Each of my installs have used a torque wrench at 14Nm with a Torx T30 bit.

I have noticed that when installed on a crank it seems more difficult to push the T30 into the bolt, but when they are removed it is easy to slide the bit into the bolts.

Has anyone else experienced this behaviour from these (or other Shimano) chainring bolts? Am I doing something wrong if this is happening?

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  • Did you buy the crankset from the LBS you mentioned in the other question? Was the one that snapped from the old crankset or the new crankset?
    – Superman.Lopez
    Jun 17, 2019 at 4:42
  • I did buy the cranks from my LBS. The one I snapped was from the old crankset. The new set came with a new set of bolts so I used one from there. I'll update the other question with this - but I did try all 4 new bolts in my troubleshooting as well.
    – Vitamin-T
    Jun 17, 2019 at 13:45
  • Good work - I'd replace all the bolts if one has snapped.
    – Criggie ♦
    Feb 25, 2020 at 7:23

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For what it's worth - the best answer I've been able to come up with/figure out is that when I was torquing the bolts down I might have been putting force on both the crank arm and the torque wrench and maybe doubling up on the force...

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    'Every force has a equal and opposite reaction.' To tighten a chainring bolt you have to put an equal torque on the crank to keep it from rotating, that does not mean the torque is doubled.
    – Argenti Apparatus
    Jan 26, 2020 at 12:47
  • I agree with Argenti, it does not seem likely. Shimano’s specs for the R8K cranks do say 12-16 Nm of torque. Ultegra should have steel bolts as well, which I’d expect to be more resistant to fatigue. Best guess is just a faulty bolt, unless your torque wrench is terribly miscalibrated.
    – Weiwen Ng
    Feb 25, 2020 at 14:31
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    Hmm. I found a site that said that the 6800 version of Ultegra uses alloy chainring bolts, so I'd assume the current generation also does. Again, if the OP used the correct torque, these should not have cracked, but I do wonder if failures may be more common with alloy bolts. Most users don't need to repeatedly install chainrings. handsonbike.blogspot.com/2016/10/…
    – Weiwen Ng
    Feb 26, 2020 at 19:30
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Just sheared one of mine on an Ultegra R8020 11-speed crank. It's a Torx 30 screw made of aluminium, so it sheared quite easily when I tightened it to the Shimano recommended 12 - 16 NM. This seems far too much and even 8 NM seems too much.

I managed to get a Sora screw, which gets me back on the road, from the LBS and they recommend 6 NM with alloy screws.

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  • I also had a creak in my Ultegra crank which I'm still trying to sort out. I switched a Praxis Zayante crank for the Ultegra yet even with a new BB it still creaks. I tightened the chainring bolts (and snapped one - see previous post) but when checking the box of bits left over from the swap I noticed a spacer on one of the Praxis BB cups,the Ultegra doesn't have this so I think adding the spacer could solve the problem - I'm doing this tomorrow.
    – Mike Carey
    Aug 2, 2021 at 20:51

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