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can anyone offer a qualified view on this? its easy to say "stainless is stronger therefore use stainless" but how over engineered is a 6 bolt fixing? do i really need the extra strength??
Yep, you'll die. And it will be messy.
Seriously though. Bolts is bolts. As long as they aren't soft as cheese they'll do the job.
ali bolts shear off and blind you. FACT
Yup Jedi + 1. I have used Alu for non critical stuff; bottle cages, gear lever clamps, but for anything where there is likely to be load involved - no way
"... suitable for use in all non-safety critical areas..."
You pays your money & you takes your choice
Would have thought Ti would be a better option if you want to loose gramms.
Doesn't Peaty just run 3 ti bolts on his rear rotor? I guess he doesn't use his brakes that much though.
I'd stick to steel myself
unqualified view - I would never use alloy bolts on a brake.
Get some at try breaking them its easy. Ti for brakes if yuy want to save the weright - alloy for non critical areas
Don't use aluminium anywhere except for cosmetic/non-critical stuff. I'm not sure I'd even risk my bottle cage to ally bolts. They're crap. I bought a tub of them from Probolt years ago and they're scarily soft.
Most important bolts on your bike are tensile steel. This is steel with a high tensile strength but it rusts easily so is given a coating. You'll see rust inside the heads of allen head bolts because the coating gets scratched off.
Stainless, depending on grade, can be better or worse than tensile steel. I had a low-grade stanless bolt shear straight off in the yoke of a DRZ400 dirt bike. You know - the ones that hold the front forks on. 😯 Unless you know the grade is good, don't replace tensile with stainless for applications such as caliper bolts.
Titanium is lighter than steel with a similar tensile strength so makes a good substitution for steel caliper bolts. Trouble is, it's expensive and very, very prone to seizure incontact with aluminium. Use shedloads of copper grease and, even then, remove and regrease regularly.
In other words, the humble steel caliper bolt is the best for the job unless you want to die or like spannering stuff regularly and don't mind wasting money on flash metals for minimum weight loss.
hmmm, it was predominantly the rust i wanted to avoid (a long wet motorway journey and putting the bike away wet has left me with rusty bolts all over) so stainless isn't necessarily good either.
i use ti for exactly that reason works fine.
If you find your local stainless stockist, you'll stand a good chance of getting decent quality (and non rusting) bolts at a sensible price.
has left me with rusty bolts all over) so stainless isn't necessarily good either.
Eh?!
You do know stainless doesn't rust, don't you? Well, not under normal conditions anyway.
Wouldn't put ali bolts anywhere near my brakes. I've never had a prob with rotor bolts rusting but why not try [url= http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=9950 ]these[/url] they're coated, have threadlock and are torx.
Ti if you wanna save weight but there's better/cheaper places to save weight first.
Rather than having that 'last' pint, just order a couple of Ti bolts instead - eventually you'll have a bike full.
And +1 not using alloy bolts
Argghhh!
Alloy is not the same as Ali
Alloy = mixture of 2 or more metals, so stainless is an alloy, as is all steel (mixture of iron, carbon etc) [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel ]All you need to know[/url]
Anyway, don't use aluminium bolts on anything that you don't want to fail.
Oh and another bug-bear of mine - your cassette and chain rings are sprockets, not cogs.
Use steel bolts and take a dump before you ride you'll save weight and stay alive.
Oh and another bug-bear of mine - your cassette and chain rings are sprockets, not cogs.
high five
Stainless all the way. I pretty much only ever use stainless now.
Aluminium bolts are just weirdly wrong.
+1 on the weight saving tip of having a dump before you ride too.
😀
And for Scienceofficer- there are apparently over 100 different grades of stainless steel,and strangely enough, some do actually rust.
ok, so just to confirm, this was about avoiding corrosion and maybe just a teensy wee bit because i'm a tart and like pretty colours.
i've since been advised that aluminum is particularly poor where sheer forces are concerned so disaster averted there.
a few have recommended stainless bolts but shedfull suggests tensile as opposed to stainless (and i expect that's what I've go at the moment given the corrosion) - is he right? am i destined to have rusty bolts forever??
oh - and why are all the rotor specific bolts available on Wiggle and CRC torx head? another tool to carry in my pack 🙁
Well Titanium has good tensile strength, and compared to steel, it's usually quoted as being 40% lighter and 20% stronger. If you want to get rid of aesthetc corrosion (rust) then Ti is your solution, but it won't get rid of the galvanic corrosion problem. Where the bolt chemically bonds into place making it very difficult to remove. So lots of anti seize compund or threadlock to act as a barrier is required as well as regular removal of the bolts to stop them breaking down the barrier and bonding in place. Correct torque values are very important on all fixings in safety critical ares too, so it's never going to be a fit and forget situation.So you might as well shell out on Ti fittings and up your maintenance schedule to keep them in good order.
Bling Bling!
My calipers came with alu bolts as stock, so it's certainly not inherently a problem there - not sure I'd be wanting to upgrade with some generic alu bolts I didn't know the strength of though. I use ti for the rotor bolts.