I found a bolt in my garage today near my bike that I have no idea where came from. It's a socket head cap bolt, 1 1/16" overall, 3/4" of thread, for a 6mm hex key. It doesn't match anything on the bike I can find, but it's bugging me to no end that it just appeared. I'll post a pic here in a minute, but does that sound familiar to anyone?

 

 

That looks like it has not been attached to anything for a long time. The threads don't show any witness marks of backing out. And it is rusty as heck. I would hazard a guess that it is a random fastener of some project from the past.

 

That's what I thought too, it was just driving me nuts that it was right there by my bike, and I keep my garage pretty clean.

Sharing that side of my garage are my 5 year old's bike and powerwheels, so it wouldn't surprise me to discover it's something he found out on adventure.

 

The worn lead threads are interesting. My first thought is part of a jack. My service jack uses a similar bolt to hold the handle onto the yoke. The end of the bolt gets worn from the retaining groove in the handle.

Dunno about modern Harleys but I can't seem to recall any largeish metric socket cap fasteners on mine .

 

Looks like someone ground a point on it to get it started in poorly aligned holes, or
maybe made into a setscrew. Not a stock HD fastener that I have ever seen.

 

Socket head or hex head?

If it was Hex i'd suspect it might be from the goose head set of a BMW or MTB

Either way its old. Maybe you dragged it in in the tread of a tyre?

 

It's a rod bolt. It's all good if you haven't noticed any new noises.

 

lock bolt for the seat of the tricycle?

 

Mystery solved: My 5 year old says he found it in the cul de sac and "thought I might need it for my bike" so he left it where I'd find it. No telling what it came off of or how long it had been there.