Having recently refurbished my 748 virtually every single nut and bolt has been replaced with stainless steel ones. What's the general consensus? Keep the s/s ones - no more corrosion in the future - or get the original ones replated and then put them all back in?
I think you'll have many different views on this, obviously if you want to keep as close to original as possible, then it's re-plated, you will have comments regarding the strength of stainless in high stress situations, personally as I am miles away from a platers I tend to go with stainless with the odd Titanium for ease. Steve
Yep, the brake calliper bolts are titanium. As many know the bike is for sale so I suppose I’m fishing for guidance as to whether to stick with the s/s or go back to the original. What might a prospective purchaser want?
Is it going to make that much difference ? put the old ones in a tub and give them to the new owner and let him/her have them plated at there leisure if they want.
As Birdie said, give the new owner the option, as long as you're happy with the grade of stainless used in any stressed parts then it is all good, on general fasteners there's nothing to worry about. Steel is very well understood and relatively cheap so industry sticks with it
As you are selling the bike, I'd use what you have as long as they are in good condition. The new owner will either change them or keep them once it's in their possession
I would want to see heads in good condition, clean and rust free. Then I'd think you had maintained the bike. I wouldn't put extra value / desirability on one type over another personally. That said I replace bolts with stainless or titanium when necessary.
The original fasteners are mostly very soft and tend to discolour, so stainless or titanium for me, unless you’re after originality
I used to fit stainless and titanium on my bikes but if it's something special I'd try and keep it original as poss , my r1 I changed to titanium but my 996 I re zinced everything to keep it original.
your stock fasteners were to a certain specification laid out for the automotive industry regarding failure rate and load capacities. the plating in those that ducati used was 8.8 zinc with a gold passivate coating. All bolts are designed to meet a certain corrosion and duty cycle of stretches which if you exceeded will need replacing anyway. - yes they are designed to corrode and act as the sacrificial anode before the component they go into does. If you're going to swap bolts out with Ti or stainless then make sure you just buy from a decent source other wise you may as well just put monkey metal in there. If it were me, I'd be looking at the head of the bolt over and above the level of corrosion on it. I'd rather see a head that's a bit furry but hasn't been touched than a socket cap head that looks all shiney but I can see where the person that done it up put too much stress through it and started to distort / round off the fastening. Stainless will corrode eventually and titanium is a bastard for galling if you don't use a proper assembly grease on it, and copperslip isn't it despite what probolt like to tell you. A decent assembly grease such as pankl's own will also act as a torque enhancer meaning that you can go in with a lower torque range to begin with, thereby giving you a margin within which to work (if you find stuff coming loose) without compromising the component because you've gone to tighten a case bolt and the thing's cracked under the torque load. That said, any new owner, me included would appreciate the thought gone into being given any bolts that were swapped out - unless they're old snotters in which case bin them. If you really wanted, you could send the box of bolts to a platers and get him to restore them and replate so new owner has the choice to swap back should they want to - it's a nice touch and would be a help in affirming that you've been conscientious in your ownership.
https://www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk/Reference.html Westfield provide a handy reference to the different grades of stainless steel which they offer. Whenever stainless sellers do not state what grade they are selling, it is A2.
Ive already gone stainless, with some Ti, just gauging consensus as to whether I should replace and then put back the original ones and take out the stainless (which could always be used an something else in the future). Why would you want the old ones anyway? Having said that I may just send them to you for you to get your man to do them as he's a damn sight cheaper than anyone over here and does a good job by the looks of it.
In the automotive and heavy vehicle industries many safety related fasteners are no longer plated due to hydrogen embrittlement. So be careful when having safety critical fasteners replated. Make sure with any plating that the plater uses a de-embrittling process. Even this cannot guarantee the results though. The higher the tensile strength the higher the risk of hydrogen. Hydrogen embrittlement is a metal's loss of ductility and reduction of load bearing capability due to the absorption of hydrogen atoms or molecules by the metal. The result of hydrogen embrittlement is that components crack and fracture at stresses less than the yield strength of the metal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement
