so after coming back from my ride today, after the bike cooled down I did some cleaning of the bike. Mind you I just bough this bike last Friday, and I noticed especially on the exhaust all these nuts, pipe clamps, and some of the threaded bolts were rusty. I hadn't actually seen the details of just how many at the dealership with all of my excitement being that this was my first bike.

So my question is what do you guys use to clean the rust off or do you just replace the bolts, clamps etc? And why are they all by the stock exhaust??

TY

 

wd-40 and a cheap wire brush.

 

I painted mine gloss black with Testor model paint using a Q tip, clamps are for the heatshields, no need to replace unless they crack.

 

316 stainless hardware with copper anti-sieze on the threads for my exhaust.
The plated hardware rusts quickly because oxidation is the product of a chemical reaction and all chemical reactions take place more quickly at higher temperatures. Plus, waxes and protectants burn off quickly.

 

Rather than deal with rusty steel fasteners, just replace them with new or stainless.

Having built a few rods and customs in my life, I find the nut and bolt stores to be by far the cheapest and widest source for stainless steel fasteners, like 1/4 the price of Lowe's, Ace and such. I just make a list or grab the crusty bolts and head over there.

You'll be surprised with the stuff that they carry that is unrelated to bolts, screws and nuts, they normally sell in bulk to contractors and businesses (so are closed on week-ends), but they always accommodate me, even letting me brouse their back stock room when looking for something unique. Their mark-up doesn't have to account for shoplifting, customer mislabeling or other theft, so prices are low.

 

Yep, I'll second that, all of it above. Shortly after I bought my streetbob, I noticed that hardware, was rusting, aluminum was rusting in it's own way, called oxidizing and getting a powdery white film on it, and in general looking like crap. So I initially bought some of that black hardware, that looked damn good on my black streetbob, haaaaaaaaaahaha, that stuff rusts as fast if not faster than zink plated hardware. So now I go down to a fastener place that deals with plants/marine folks and buy stainless fasteners. I've got a majority of mine all swapped over to stainless now, looks much better and will hold up much longer. I do have a little chrome fastners and some areas of grade 8 bolts that I won't change over to stainless, that's the one area of stainless you have to be conscious of, it doesn't have the strength of hardened steel. Not a big deal of trim and minor torque bolts, but I wouldn't replace a high torque app grade 8 bolt with it, for instance the sprocket bolt.