Stainless swingarm bolt

[Deuce426]

With swingarm bolts sometimes sticking as I have read, has anyone tried a stainless bolt? I know most of it all comes down to routine preventative maintenance, which I am an advocate of. But since I had a fun time taking the bolt out of the basket case 250r I picked up, was curious how this would hold up, mainly as preventative maintenance. Xcbob offers them on ebay, and I have heard some of his other products are of good quality.

[destey]

Stainless is low-carbon steel mixed with chromium. It cannot be hardened due to its low carbon content. It is slightly stronger than unhardened (grade 2) hardware.

Anyone know if the swingarm bolt is hardened?

[Deuce426]

Yeah that was my concern with using a stainless bolt.

[86 Quad R]

for your average rec rider it'd be fine but for a die-hard mx or xc'r i wouldnt trust it.

[IcutMetl]

You'd be surprised how many grades of stainless there are out there; it's a lot more than just low carbon steel mixed with chromium. What about nickel?? The more nickel a stainless has, the more corrosion resistance, and also tougher to machine. A lot of it depends on the series of stainless, and a lot of stainlesses can be hardened- like 400 series, 17-4, etc and have great strength. However, the stainless swingarm bolts I've seen don't mention what grade, and yes; if it's a 304, 303, 316...stick with the plated steel.