sorry if this has been done to death? i use my bike every day all year and even with acf50 all over it a lot of the nuts/bolts have gone really rusty. i haven't got the patience to do a few here and there because of the cost of titanium so if i use stainless will they rust through the winter like the steel have? is there anywhere i can find the right sizes in print or is it a case of measure evry thing i want to replace? cheers
Stainless depends on the grade used! Can still corrode but not as quick as the zinc plated mild steel crap the oem use To be honest titanium isn't as expensive as you think! I have found a lot at similar cost to buying Honda parts The occasional bolt might be slightly more expensive due to not being quite standard but still cheap enough
Give me a call or text Wednesday evening when I've finished shifts and I'll go through what I've bought and where from
Someone needs to document this information as often asked. I've replaced loads on my bike for this very reason, but they are cheap enough in Titanium to fit and forget!
I buy mine from Competition Fastners as I slow work my way through my bike !! Just so much nicer than std bolts.
So some of the places I use are as follows Competition fasteners Projection components Titan classics (for some of the special shoulder fairing bolts and exhaust studs) Racebolt Pro-bolt Will update this as I go along
Personally i would go with S/S fasteners over Ti, don't see the benefit in fitting Ti to a road bike.
Why add weight? Stainless is marginally heavier compared to mild steel and actually shouldn't be used in certain parts due to being more brittle compared to zinc coated mild steel! Also depending on grade used can still corrode
Yeah i agree you can see marginal corrosion on S/S fasteners as you say depending on grade, as for adding weight in comparison to M/S fasteners this would be fractional. On the safety side though a high tensile fastener ie 10.9 or 12.9 should never be replaced with a titanium or S/S fastener.
In terms of weight saving there is nothing to to be gained between stainless and carbon steels. Depending on the alloy they close enough to to be the same density. Titanium is, in round numbers, about 60% like-for-like the weight of a steel. But as mentioned earlier, it's the mechanical characteristics of carbon steel compared to the other two that deserves respect. For example, stainless has a much lower fatigue life than carbon and is not ever an automatic improvement. For clearly cosmetic fasteners then stainless or titanium are a safe bet, but for cyclically loads parts and those exposed to sudden shock be very careful the replacement material is fit for service. Personally, if I was bothered about detail cosmetics, I'd be inclined to find a coating or similar rather than changing out OEM materials.
