I hate stainless steel :-)

Flylow

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Hi Vic,
I will buy any standard fastener (nut, bolt etc.) from a Vincent that you replace with Stainless.
Please send me a PM.

Thanks -Kurt
 

Michael Vane-Hunt

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VOC Member
I love reading these posts and just holding off to see were it goes........Strong opinions on here about fasteners.........Stainless........My pet hate.........It is actually well known in this country at least that you should not use stainless fasteners on any vehicles brake or suspension components......If you need a good point of view look at it all this way.........What do manufacturers use........Never seen a bike or car covered in stainless from the factory.......... Stainless seems practical, as Marcus pointed out living close to the ocean........yes that is of benefit.........Vic with your background in aviation you should know what stainless fasteners do to aircraft sheet metal.......... Not good.........Hey to each his own........Don't start me on metric fasteners.........If you want that, then buy a Jap bike..........Cheers.
Doesn't Musk's Cyber truck have a stainless body?
 

oexing

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VOC Member
De Lorean, milk or wine trucks, lots of other chemical or food processing machinery ? There must be loads of uses for stainless bolts and nuts, otherwise nobody would care to produce them, just for the few nutty bikers ?? And in marine sector I believe they will like their ss fasteners, brass is just not good enough in places. As I said, some matters are religion views, without exactly stating the reasons why. Yes, typical common stainless is a bit lower strength than higher tensile steel, but better than homesupply galv screws and you´ll hardly find a place on a bike where it will be too weak. Some like their titanium, I´d be a little more worried about this for critical uses. Simple reason why you rarely find ss fasteners standard on new vehicles, it is too expensive in high production numbers, less profit for top brass.
As to seized ss threads , obvious reason, the mechanic had no clue about lube on threads, he does not lube spark plugs the same. So big money for Helicoil company for spark plug repair, the root of their invention. Stainless got no coating so seizure is logic, do same with alu or plain steel/iron , will seize just as fine when dry fitted. So simple procedure, get some MoS2 or antiseize paste on threads and there will be no trouble for decades, alternative is Loctite which will seal the threads at the same time. Again, I had ss fasteners for 40 years on all sorts of vehicles and more, never a problem. Nor is it any problem with metric stuff, only simpler handling with it. Just face it, the low numbers of imperial machines ever made from UK or USA present almost nothing compared to numbers from other continents in metric - and they don´t break down all the time. Millions and millions of Chinese , European and Japanese machines dwarf all imperial production for a reason . . . ., sorry I only got funny arguments here why imperial standards should make any sense to stay with them , just sentimentality really.
Yes, there will not be much of imperial fasteners left on my bikes but that crap I replaced is not worth much, - from Argentina. Whitworth - worth it ?? For shipping this to US with present costs definitely no . But this shows again that obsolete British fasteners are no longer, for a long time, practical for real use when you have to hunt them at silly collectors money. And I am no collector of old bolts when they do nothing for the looks. Instead when keeping to metric I have a choice of hardware that is no way available in imperial system, like countersunk Torx for my new brakes and hubs, so some flaws in the Vincent designs are overcome by knowing what was wrong with old components.


Vic
P1090686.JPG
 

LoneStar

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
To be logical, and abandon the murky superstitions of religion, we must admit that in many applications stainless is better than carbon steel.

Also:

Metric is a more practical standard today than Whitworth.
Digital fuel injection is better than Amal carburetors.
Liquid cooled engines are better than air cooled.
ABS brakes are better than SLS.
Low-profile radials are better than bias-ply tires.

All that established, why own a Vincent at all? Logic dictates you should simply buy a modern bike.
 

Bill Thomas

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VOC Member
I love it , Just not on the top gearbox bolt,
On a Comet, Mine broke off !!, 1/2" bolt, I am not that strong !.
Some kind of rust between 2 types of stainless ?, Where the nut is welded to the stud ?.

Mine you I made Cam spindles out of it in the 70 s,
I was told it work Hardens, Mine just wore out, But the oilite bush was OK !!.
 

Peter Holmes

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VOC Member
Cam spindles made from stainless, now that does sound ill advised, if not a tad risky, but at least I suppose there was little danger of the threaded portion pinging off the shaft.
 

Bill Thomas

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Cam spindles made from stainless, now that does sound ill advised, if not a tad risky, but at least I suppose there was little danger of the threaded portion pinging off the shaft.
I was young and Silly..
Never seen anything like it.
They wore down about a quarter of an inch.
Just think what I could do with.
A Milling Machine.
 

oexing

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
"Work hardening" of stainless is not a suitable expression for its behaviour so it is misinterpreted for obtaining high hardness. It just cannot, not enough carbon for hardening, just gets higher tensile strength from deformation , like drawn profiles or forged steel. Work hardening on ss pushrods is not quite so as you´d imagine, my guess a lot less than 50 HRC, maybe 30-40 at best. But ss is great for girder fork spindles when paired with low wear no lube high tech plastic bushes. Again, no choice for me to have bronce plus grease for girders when there are modern alternatives. No concours limitations in my mind, so biiig freedom to do as I like - but while keeping the classic looks so no clash in styling from adding obviously modern components. But certainly that´s the choice for anyone to have his bike as he likes. No necessity to raise old motorbikes up to untouchable national monuments when there are thousands of them left.

Vic
 

Monkeypants

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Non-VOC Member
It seems that fastener corrosion can be a problem on motorcycles that get used. Cadmium plating was a cheap short term fix for this.
I prefer stainless. So did the Phils, they just couldn't afford that much of it, according to Phil Irving.
This is a piece of Walnut cut from a Bowsprit removed from a customer's sailboat.
I installed the Ronstan 304 SS Deck cleat for him in 1975. Sometime in the mid 80s, he ran the boat into the White Rock Pier and destroyed the bowsprit.
He brought the boat to our shop to have a new bowsprit made in Teak.
He did not want the cleat installed in the new Bowsprit as he wanted max strength, in case he needed to run into the pier again. I cut the section with the cleat out and set it aside thinking it would need penetrating fluid on the fasteners. Then I lost the piece.
About a year ago, when stripping soil with the backhoe, I saw something gleaming in the ground. The bowsprit piece had been in contact with the ground for thirty five years. For most of that time it had been covered in soil. Prior to that it was in a Marine environment for a decade. The nuts thread off and on perfectly with just finger pressure.
The cleat itself could use a Polish but there is zero pitting.
Unfortunately, the Walnut is done!

Glen
IMG_20210727_052918.jpg
 
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