Motorbike Restoration: How To Find Rare Fasteners

Motorbike restoration is a fun activity for those who are interested in bikes, as well as people who simply love mechanical engineering. If you are one of these, one of the challenges you might face is how to find the ideal fasteners for a particular bike restoration. This is particularly important if you are trying to restore a very old bike which has some special quality to it, such as being a limited edition. In such cases, the fact that there are so few samples available means that you may find it difficult to find fasteners and other spares for the bike. This might sound like a major setback in terms of the restoration, but there are several things you can do to find the rare fasteners. Some of these include:

Consulting the manufacturer

If the bike manufacturer is still in business, you can always consult them to find out if they have some of the fasteners you need. This is usually the best course of action under these circumstances. The easiest way to do this is to simply communicate with them via email, or to visit their offices if they are close by.
If you are interested in the former, you will need to provide detailed information such as the type of bike you are trying to restore as well as the specific fastener types you are interested in. The manufacturer will then give you various options including buying from them or where to get them from a third party if they don’t stock them. In some cases, they can also offer you tips on how to substitute the rare fasteners with more common ones such as Hastelloy socket head cap screws or steel hex head cap screws.

Getting help from an owners’ club

The other option would be to consult an owners’ club if you happen to belong to one. The other enthusiasts in the club are likely to be very good sources of information regarding how to find the rare fastener types you are interested in, particularly if they are running similar projects as your restoration. The good thing these days is that even if you don’t have such a club in your locality, you can always find one online. Social media sites are particularly excellent resources you can use for this.

 

Buying from online specialty stores

In addition to that, you can also buy the fasteners and other spares from specialty stores online. These are stores that are dedicated to selling one niche of items, such as very old and rare bike parts. These are easy to find, and usually provide items at reasonable prices. You can even compare the prices from different stores to find the one that offers the best value for money.

Having them custom made

If the parts and fasteners you are interested in are particularly rare, having them custom made would be the best way to go. High quality fastener vendors are likely to do this for you for a reasonable fee provided that you provide the correct specifications for the fasteners.