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Stainless Or Titanium?


rusty

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I've been reading the article in this months mag about fasteners and it got me thinking about the ones on my R1.

I'm planning on replacing any fasteners which corrode over the winter with some aftermarket ones but I can't decide whether its worth spending the extra money on titanium kit?

I'm just gonna be replacing bits as and when rather than buying a complete bike set at once and doing them all together. I'm gonna start with caliper kits and disc bolts by the looks of it then anything else that decides to go furry over the next few months.

Is titanium worth the extra expense?

Realistically what kind of weigt saving would there be on the bike from changing from the standard monkey metal fasteners to titanium ones?

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Hi.

Ti fasteners save a bit of weight and also look good but the costs are very high!

Bits that sit low down on the bike get covered in road salt and dirt, so are you going to see them?

Stainless although heavier are easier to clean and also look good.

Best is speak to Tootall who does Pro-bolt and see what he recommends.

Hope this helps. Keith

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Titanium will save you about 40% of the weight of your boggo fasteners, and for all intents and purposes stainless will weigh the same as stock. 6x2 disc bolts + 4 caliper bolts will probably save you a couple of hundred grammes maybe. The weight saving isn't huge, although if you're shit hot you might be able to feel the difference... However, I posted a thing a bit back asking about the issues with fitting stainless disc bolts and was told that stainless can quite easily corrode in to the aluminium of your wheel, causing you to have a bit of a problem when it comes to getting them off afterwards. So, you've a selection of options: Boggo ones that corrode and are made of cheese, Stainless ones that corrode in due to a chemical reaction, Titanium ones which'll be fine but cost you an arm and a leg. For reference, take a look on ebay, there's a few sellers that do cheaper ti fasteners on there, that should give you an idea of price, then, in a week or so's time when tootall's back on line after his house move, buy better quality ones off him for the same price as the cheapo ebay ones.

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I had a lot of titanium fasteners on my R1, almost all of them below knee height, throw a bucket of water at them and they're shiny again. There's nothing cheapens a bike more than rusty fasteners, and corrosion stains the surrounding area, at 80,000 miles the R1 still looked in great condition.

The answer probably depends on how long you're keeping the bike, and how much use it's going to get in poor conditions.

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Hmmm, I'm planning on keeping the bike for a while so I suppose it'll probably be worth splashing out on the decent stuff. It's used all year round so whatever I get needs to be able to cope with the shitty winter weather.

Looks like I'll be needing to speak to tootall when he's back to get some prices!

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Buying Ti fasteners is a no brainer really. Unless you're a fat fingered fuck they should be tougher than the tools that you own. They'll move from bike to bike if you want. Take the original out. store it and put it back when you sell the bike on. Lets face it, chances are that you're fixing into aly and the thread in there will be shafted long before a Ti bolt. Think about investing in an insert kit as well. Helicoils are your friend cause sticking a Ti screw into most of the Alloys that we consider to be prime pieces of precision engineering can often lead to tears if you're gonna tinker a lot.

Truth is about fasteners that cost more than the tools that you use is that in time you'll start using tools that cost more than the fasteners. Somewhere in this bit of gibberish is a pearl of wisdom, you can tell it's Xmas. :eusa_whistle: Pissed again!

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I have titanium disc bolts and sprocket nuts all round on the GSXR. They are so light they feel like they should be floating. Amazing.

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Ti is cock hardening....It's 40% LESS.........LESS corrosive than stainless. Hence why they use it in artificle hips etc. And like someone else said it feels like it's floating away. I LOVE IT>> ;)

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Titanium bolts are very nice. ProBolt and Poggipolini do supply some nice kit, but be careful! If you are like me, one or two titanium bolts will just not do and you'll end up replacing every bolt, nut and washer with the stuff. It will be expensive...

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Titanium bolts are very nice. ProBolt and Poggipolini do supply some nice kit, but be careful! If you are like me, one or two titanium bolts will just not do and you'll end up replacing every bolt, nut and washer with the stuff. It will be expensive...

He he he he he heheh ehe he hehehehehehehehehe. I know where your garage is, and it'll all fit my bike too! hehehehehehehehehehehehe

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