Well, that was far too much effort

[rgbeard]

Track day is coming up on the 6th, and the GSXR gets new shoes for the event.

It's a task I've done countless times on many motorcycles, several times to this one, and this event shouldn't be much different.

Remounting the front wheel, I began to put on the front pinch bolts. They're not to be too tight. The book calls for 16.5 ft/lb.

The first one. Just fine. The second one, not so much. Just as I'm thinking "oh sh*t....", I hear the snap. Fortunately, the bolt is sticking out just a little bit, and I can get the piece out with pliers. I escaped a nasty bolt extraction.

I curse these parts that are clearly made of liquid beetle dung. I go to the parts store and pick up some 8.8 bolts to replace these pieces of .

I begin again, replacing the first fastener with my new ones.

I get to the fourth and final one. Uh oh, this doesn't feel right. The bolt proceeds to strip the interior threads.

Back to the parts store and pick up a longer bolt, and let this one pass all the way through, and secure the back side of it with a nut.

All's well now. It certainly was more work than I'd planned.

[FightingChance]

I think part of bringing the price point of these bikes down to where they are is cheaping out on stuff like this, which will survive a reasonable street ridden duty cycle but not under race conditions (which is why Pro Bolt exists, etc). So your experience is not uncommon, recently lost some bolts on an old VFR I was working on.

[i28]

I can relate since I was really good at messing up threads and bolts when I first started working on my bike. My rear brake issue was due to it.

As for lower price points, as FightingChance pointed out, the thing that worried me about my bike is that I've seen countless pictures of people with a stuck rear axle nut who had to dremel it off (that is until I switched it out).

[Big_Panda]

Happened to me when I was putting my forks back together. Both front caliper mounting bolts broke as I was torquing them to spec. They both broke in the exact same spot too. I think they had gotten tired from years of service.

[thtanner]

Cheap torque wrenches suck, and lead to lots of issues. Also, people tend to torque stuff too slowly and go way beyond the spec because the cheap wrench didn't 'click.'

[rgbeard]

Originally Posted by thtanner

Cheap torque wrenches suck, and lead to lots of issues. Also, people tend to torque stuff too slowly and go way beyond the spec because the cheap wrench didn't 'click.'

Could be on to something? Hmmm.

[UV1000]

Originally Posted by FightingChance

I think part of bringing the price point of these bikes down to where they are is cheaping out on stuff like this, which will survive a reasonable street ridden duty cycle but not under race conditions (which is why Pro Bolt exists, etc). So your experience is not uncommon, recently lost some bolts on an old VFR I was working on.

Yuumm... tasty titanium pinch bolts strengthened and blued. I like mine tied with S wire, eye candy so trued.