Nuts Screws Washers and Pro-Bolt

All I wanted were four bolts for the screen on the Yamaha after the heads on the factory nylon ones chewed up the first time I removed them.

Where I ended up – thanks to a thoroughly engaging chat with the people at Pro-Bolt – was with a deep dive into why race teams the world over, custom motorcycle builders, and now even numpties like me buy fasteners and bolts from Pro-Bolt.

I wouldn’t have thought that a bolt could be an exciting thing. I never think about them, except when I’m cursing and complaining that I can’t find what I want or it is refusing to undo.

There is a lot more to “bolt technology” than how big a spanner I need.

Back In the 1980s

Back in the 1980s, one of the first things anyone did to their motorcycle was to buy an Allen bolt set for the engine casings and replace the Japanese factory originals.

Typically the factory originals were crosshead screws that “welded” themselves into the engine casings. One theory for the screws sticking was the materials the engine casings were made from reacted with the metal in the screws causing them to stick. Another theory was that the factory bolts were of such poor quality that they needed excessive amounts of thread-locker to stop them from falling out.

Whatever the reason, an Impact Driver was the second thing most of us bought to shift the “welded” in bolts.

Roll forward to today, and bolts no longer weld themselves into the engine casings, but the finish on fasteners and bolts on most motorcycles remains a weak point in motorcycle production. Either the finish wears away quickly, or most commonly, the bolts and fasteners start to corrode.

Passion

It is always good to talk to people who are passionate about things, and the helpful person on the phone at Pro-Bolt was very passionate about what Pro-Bolt do.

Yamaha had decided to attach the screen to my Tracer 9 GT with four nylon screws for reasons known only to them. The first time I removed the screen – using a JIS screwdriver – the heads of the screws started chewing up and looking unsightly.

The second time I took the screen off, I didn’t pay enough attention when I was replacing it and put too much lateral load on one of the nylon bolts, and it sheered. I was quoted £3 for an original replacement – £3 for a nylon screw! eBay didn’t have the right size in nylon, and although the replacements were cheap enough, they were the wrong length and didn’t have the correct heads.

Pro-Bolt

Thankfully one of my colleagues has used Pro-Bolt for years – although never mentioned them – and it took him all of two minutes to find the replacement bolts I needed, made from aluminium and anodised black. Total cost, £6 delivered, for all four bolts.

I can still hear some of you thinking that those little blister packs you find in the local motor spares shop would have been cheaper. Cheap they may be but value for money? I would say, not a chance.

All of the Pro-Bolt products are manufactured in the UK using fully certified and traceable raw materials, enhanced using multiaxis sliding head machines to ISO9001 standards and then anodised in the Pro-Bolt factory. In short, with Pro-Bolt, you are buying quality. Of course, cheaper is available if you want it, but I don’t think I do.

And it doesn’t stop at nuts, screws, washers and bolts. There are complete fairing bolt kits, including a range of quick-release fasteners. There are bar-end weights, top yoke nuts, preload adjusters. Clutch and brake fluid reservoir caps, clips, cable adjusters, paddock stand bobbins … the list never seems to end, and I haven’t mentioned yet that you can have these in aluminium, stainless steel or titanium, and in a range of colours.