Technical > General Technical
Titanium bolts? Mad waste of money or any purpose?
onebikeoneworld:
I've been considering changing out some bolts that look a bit worn, and was wondering about the idea of changing to Titanium ones. They're certainly not cheap (http://tibike.co.uk/shop/ seem to have them at about £3 a go) and a quick glance at the bike suggests there are north of 50 bolts.
Has anyone does this? What precautions should be taken? Would the interface on Titanium bolts be less prone to rounding from Hex keys than on stock bolts? Is it just a way to spend £200 to save 100g on a Thorn Raven which weighs a silly amount.
Pavel:
Well thinking about this I vaguely remember some of the properties of titanium. It is a poor conductor, it is less dense than steel and thus lighter, more ductile and has a much higher elongation rate, and superior tensile strength. Now that is off the top of my underpowered head - so double checking might be in order, and I wonder myself how that would play out.
Normally if you go to theoretical extremes, all the differences except weight can be seen as either good or bad thing depending on the over-all design objectives, but I feel that it's similar to the idea of what one bicycle salesman told me once, how an ahead stem is stronger than a quil stem. I asked him was "under which conditions, where are you measuring the various forces, and what sort of numbers did your testing show?" He responded - well everyone knows this and left - which was a desirable outcome for me.
I don't think it matters except as a good topic on a rainy day, inside a warm pub, with some of one's drunk friends, where it becomes very important as the beers are put away. On a real bicycle it does not make any sort of difference, I'm sure. I mean if one worries about the strength of a quill stem not being enough, where it would take forces that would shear your arms off at the shoulders, before shearing the stem. Better to not use carbon fiber handlebars instead, or even avoid aluminum perhaps rather that worry about the stem. I dunno, it all seem like a lot of marketing driven fetishism. And so too with titanium versus steel bolts on a bike.
But we are "guys", and thus I highly recommend titanium bolts. If there is a mountain somewhere, it must be climbed. Titanium bolts will allow for almost three Cliff Shot energy gells to be carried without a weight penalty and due to the superior melting point of titanium, in the case of a nuclear war they will be the last thing to melt, potentially saving time and money on the rebuild.
I've never pondered this before - but now I realize that I too need titanium bolts. The bigger question gnawing on me now however is - the benefits of titanium rims and tireless tubes.
mickeg:
I can't imagine why you would want Titanium bolts. If you want the corrosion resistance, use stainless. Almost all of the bolts on my bikes are stainless. I am not sure what the shear strength is on Titanium bolts, but I do know that my stainless bolts are good enough.
I do not know how much weight savings there would be from switching to Titanium from stainless, but I would not be surprised if I could achieve even more weight reduction if I cleaned the dirt off of my bike, especially under the fenders (mudguards) where dirt accumulates.
Pavel:
--- Quote from: mickeg on January 04, 2018, 04:58:22 pm ---I can't imagine why you would want Titanium bolts. If you want the corrosion resistance, use stainless. Almost all of the bolts on my bikes are stainless. I am not sure what the shear strength is on Titanium bolts, but I do know that my stainless bolts are good enough.
I do not know how much weight savings there would be from switching to Titanium from stainless, but I would not be surprised if I could achieve even more weight reduction if I cleaned the dirt off of my bike, especially under the fenders (mudguards) where dirt accumulates.
--- End quote ---
That is a common mistake to call that "dirt". It is in fact "UV protection" and I make sure I never remove it from my bike - the way my wife thinks "UV protection" should be removed from bicycles and cars. It also saves me hours each week, now that I've become more enlightened.
PH:
I can’t work out where there would be 50 bolts (Which by the way will almost definitely be screws)
Is your bike made from Meccano?
IMO The weight saving will be so minimal as to be worthless. If you have any screws just plugging spare threaded holes, you could swap them for nylon screws, which will be lighter than ti.
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