[CBR954RToughnut]

:idunno: Buying bolt kit for bike to loosen up weight and just wondeirng the differeance between the two.. alloy is cheaper then the titanium. Is alloy for more of a show bike? and does alloy not last as long/or gets damaged easier then titanium bolts?

 

[bladeracer]

:idunno: Buying bolt kit for bike to loosen up weight and just wondeirng the differeance between the two.. alloy is cheaper then the titanium. Is alloy for more of a show bike? and does alloy not last as long/or gets damaged easier then titanium bolts?

Both are alloy, you mean aluminium.
Ti is twice as heavy as Al and probably 10-20 times more expensive.
There are very few places on a bike where titanium offers any advantage over aluminium.

 

[CBR954RToughnut]

yes u right it is aluminium..sorry about that.. If I buy the aluminium bolt kit is it reliable??

 

[bladeracer]

yes u right it is aluminium..sorry about that.. If I buy the aluminium bolt kit is it reliable??

Sure.
They're not very strong but they're fine for things like fairings and engine covers.
Aluminium fasteners will be one-third of the weight of the same fasteners in steel.
I found a source of nice fasteners recently at great prices but haven't used them yet. I don't bother with aluminium bolts other than a few big ones that I duplicate on the lathe. I replace every bolt possible with stainless socket head cap screws.
Might be worth a try although I can't see metric aluminium or titanium socket head cap screws listed.
McMaster-Carr

 

[NICE954]

Here to - I replaced all with stainless, much bettta.

H

 

[bladeracer]

Here to - I replaced all with stainless, much bettta.

H

Yep, I keep maybe 500 stainless cap screws on hand all the time from M4 to M10. Mostly M6 from 10mm up to 100mm long and M8 from 10mm to 50mm.
I had one of my car engines out before christmas and replaced every bolt on the engine, transmission and in the engine bay before it went back in. When I ordered replacement stock I worked out I'd used over A$300 worth of bolts.
Whenever I remove a bolt I replace it with stainless if possible. M10 are a problem as bikes generally use a fine thread and I haven't found a source of fine thread stainless socketheads.
The only thing I don't like about stainless is they're very hard, which makes them difficult to drill for lockwiring. Two M10x150 stainless sockethead bolts cost me A$27 last year to replace two engine mount bolts on one of my bikes

I'm really big on reducing weight but there just isn't enough weight in the bolts on a bike to bother replacing them with aluminium. There are much bigger gains to be made elsewhere. M6 bolts would be one of the last items I'd do, when I was desperately chasing the last few hundred grams.
And if you're regularly working on the bike you need to keep plenty of spares for aluminium bolts.

Some of the bigger bolts I make aluminium replacements for like the fork clamps and rear disc bolts.
These are my fork clamp bolts.

 

[NICE954]

Yeah, price is harsh, but worth it, I keep a couple of different ones around, I also like the strenght that stainless offers over aluminium, just makes me feel safer.

H

 

[bladeracer]

Yeah, price is harsh, but worth it, I keep a couple of different ones around, I also like the strenght that stainless offers over aluminium, just makes me feel safer.

H

6061 is roughly half the tensile strength of steel (including stainless) and titanium but still strong enough for most things you'd want to use it on a bike for.
For something that's under a lot of load, 7075 is much closer to steel and ti, around 85% of the strength I think? It's tough stuff.

 

[NICE954]

:huh: I feel so dumb when talking to you, your knowlege is KILLA.


H

 

[bladeracer]

:huh: I feel so dumb when talking to you, your knowlege is KILLA.


H

I know that feeling so well from when I was learning it myself