How often do you retorq bolts and which ones

george_n_texas

george_n_texas

Member
What bolts seem to get loose and how often do you have to retorq em down. The instructions say every 50 miles that seems a bit extreme to me..xx.
 
I have to keep an eye on my brake shoes to make sure they dont move up to wear on the sidewall of the tire, but every thing else I give a quick look every time I ride. About every 2 weeks I lube various parts and havent found any thing specific that needs tightened. BUT every so often things need adjusting especially when I change rollers on my bike say from 1 3/4 to a 1 1/4 roller or 1in to 1 1/2.
 
Using a stubby wrench to install will reduce studs shearing. Double nuts and threadlocker will prevent nuts coming loose. The only things I check are chain and head bolts every few weeks because regular threadlocker don't work on them.

On the bike make sure bearings are properly adjusted and greased. Or you'll be sooooooooooorrrry. :)
 
Do not re-tighten fasteners every 50 miles. That is bad, bad, bad information that has caused people a lot of trouble. You don't do it on your car, motorcycle or any other machine, don't do it to your bike. Engine fasteners such as intake and exhaust manifolds, head bolts, mounts, torque them properly once, then after the engine has reached operating temperature a couple of times check them but only to see if they need a slight tightening to be where they need to be as far as torque is concerned. Any machine needs maintenance and its sound advice to check things periodically but when you torque, then re-torque and continue to do that you will surely twist off studs and nuts. Like the man said, use a short (stubby) wrench and use discretion in how tight you make things. If you opt for a thread locking compound stay away from the red lable Loctite. It will hold anything but requires a lot of heat to remove the threaded fastener without doing damage. The blue lable is a far better option. Double nutting is okay and nylon lock nuts (nyloc) are good too.
Tom
 
xlite said:
LOL! If only that were true.
Click to expand...
And what do you find not true about it? Red lable Loctite is a good product but has no place on a motorized bicycle. If you have evidence to the contrary, let's hear it.
Tom
 
uh oh, another loctite controversy...

for the topic at hand, listen to what 2door says about torque.

i "check" mine every now and then. by that, i mean, i take a wrench, and see if anything's loose, without actually tightening anything. i mean, unless something's loose. which there isn't, or hasn't been.

what i pay more attention to, is my headset, my bottom bracket, and my cones on my rear wheel. i'd rather have my exhaust fall off then my back wheel lock up because the bearings fell out.

my opinion on red loctite? it has a weird, sweet smell, and it's sticky, but it doesn't taste like cherries...
 
2door said:
And what do you find not true about it? Red lable Loctite is a good product but has no place on a motorized bicycle. If you have evidence to the contrary, let's hear it.
Tom
Click to expand...

Spoken by someone who apparently has little experience with the stuff..

Think about it. If you put a microgram of Red on a 3/8" bolt do you seriously think that bolt will be stuck forever? Even with "permanent" locktite slobbered all over, these can be undone with little effort. Assume we are using tools made of steel here, not plastic or wood. :)

These bike motors need all the help they can get and it would be great if "permanent" threadlock was really permanent. I have done literally thousands of nuts in the last 10 years and few required heat to remove. Don't hurt to go easy on it though because it is expensive.

Rock breaks scissors.
Scissors cut paper
Paper covers rock

But anerobic ester (plastic) threadlock does not hold steel. Not permanently anyway.
 
In Tom's defense, it's not that red doesn't work or even that it works too well - it's simply not necessary.

Properly torqued and lockwashered (or nylock, or doublenut) fasteners won't go anywhere. In fact I worry more about the long term corrosion problems associated with dissimilar metals and "freezing" in place.

Nothin's gonna help a partially stripped fastener that's been abused by constant over-torquing or fasteners neglected because of too much faith in goober products lol - this is where knowing yer bike comes into play ;)

All red debate aside Tom's post is dead on and is the gospel truth;
2door said:
Do not re-tighten fasteners every 50 miles. That is bad, bad, bad information that has caused people a lot of trouble. You don't do it on your car, motorcycle or any other machine, don't do it to your bike. Engine fasteners such as intake and exhaust manifolds, head bolts, mounts, torque them properly once, then after the engine has reached operating temperature a couple of times check them but only to see if they need a slight tightening to be where they need to be as far as torque is concerned. Any machine needs maintenance and its sound advice to check things periodically but when you torque, then re-torque and continue to do that you will surely twist off studs and nuts. Like the man said, use a short (stubby) wrench and use discretion in how tight you make things. If you opt for a thread locking compound stay away from the red lable Loctite. It will hold anything but requires a lot of heat to remove the threaded fastener without doing damage. The blue lable is a far better option. Double nutting is okay and nylon lock nuts (nyloc) are good too.
Tom
Click to expand...
 
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You won't find a drop of Loctite red, blue, purple, green or whatever other color on my bike, it's not required! I use nyloc nuts on my engine mounting studs and that's about it. I do check all fasteners, including the non engine related ones, on my bike nearly every time I head out and rarely do I find anything loose. Takes all of about 1 or 2 minutes to do a quick fastener check and inspection of the other important things...
 
I just check tightness on the head and intake nuts before every ride, they tend to loosen a bit now and then. Everything else is A-ok and not as critical..
 
xlite said:
Spoken by someone who apparently has little experience with the stuff..

Think about it. If you put a microgram of Red on a 3/8" bolt do you seriously think that bolt will be stuck forever? Even with "permanent" locktite slobbered all over, these can be undone with little effort. Assume we are using tools made of steel here, not plastic or wood. :)

These bike motors need all the help they can get and it would be great if "permanent" threadlock was really permanent. I have done literally thousands of nuts in the last 10 years and few required heat to remove. Don't hurt to go easy on it though because it is expensive.

Rock breaks scissors.
Scissors cut paper
Paper covers rock

But anerobic ester (plastic) threadlock does not hold steel. Not permanently anyway.
Click to expand...

I typically do not enter into arguments but in your case I'm going to make an exception because you're comparing apples to oranges here. We're not talking about a steel 3/8" bolt and nut; we're discussing 6 or 8mm fasteners threaded into an aluminum casting which happens to be of questionable quality. If you would take the time to read the literature provided by the company that manufactures the Loctite product line you will see that even they do not recommend using the red lable product where it is unfeasible to apply heat in the event you need to remove a fastener. They especially address aluminum castings and steel fasteners.
As far as my experience...your comment gave me a giggle. If you only knew...
Tom
 
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2door said:
I typically do not enter into arguments but in your case I'm going to make an exception because you're comparing apples to oranges here. We're not talking about a steel 3/8" bolt and nut; we're discussing 6 or 8mm fasteners threaded into an aluminum casting which happens to be of questionable quality.
Click to expand...

Then change my comment to "nanogram" instead of "microgram". My point is you can pretty much control the level of security by the amount used. Not a good idea to slobber the bolt with half the bottle if you want to remove it easy.

One of the biggest issues I've had is oil on the bolts which seems to cause far more trouble with the blue and all CA type threadlocks. Not so much the ester based Red.

There does appear to be a wide gap between my experience and those who claim HT hardware never loosens or shears. The stock nuts (including nyloc which are one-use only) never stayed put on my installs. Aside from vibration lets not mention the effects of engine heat on those.
 
You've had probs w/nylocs? o_O

It's true that technically there "one use only" as repeated use will wear the locking band - I've never had a problem with nylocs in ANY of my various projects over the years, including my ultralight which of course was not only high vibration, but a very important application and one that there is absolutely NO room for error.

Of course they're not appropriate for high heat areas like exhaust manifolds and it's true I find them mildly annoying when I build something* - but I've NEVER seen one fail to do it's intended job of staying put. I suppose that the low-grade el'cheapo ones that come with these kits could fail... but I would assume you'd see the lil plastic ring sticking out - the only cause of failure I can imagine is that coming unseated.


*I replaced every fastener on my entire airframe, after the first hundred or so it got really tiresome not being able to just spin them on and then tighten a lil lol
 
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Ive actually used nylocs alongside lock washers on the exhaust, in fact second hand ones and I dont see any probs with them whatsoever even though they're used. Ive got them on my current commuting bike, they've never loosened under operation.. maybe its luck :)
 
Then of course there's the issue that you can buy 20 regular nuts for the cost of one nyloc. But then again you DO have to account for extra cost of that nanogram of Red locktite if you use regular nuts so maybe nylocs are cheaper after all. :rolleyes:
 
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