Quote:
Originally Posted by can't finish anyth
Wow, Manx, I wish your thread had come up in my search a few weeks ago.
The quality has not changed one bit. I changed all the hardware to grade 8 right off the bat. And their claim to the metal being 6061, let alone T6 is totally wrong. I work with 6061 all the time and at BEST it's no more than 2014. Aside from experience how can I tell? Well, first I have to admit the bar wasn't a perfect fit (sorry for the pun), so I had to bend it a bit straighter to clear some ducting, pipework and the brake res. in my '08. A bar this size and shape should be able to stand quite a bit of force from trying to bend against the curvature. With T6 you should be able to grab both ends face the bar to the floor, push it down FLAT (rising in the middle section) and get an almost total spring back to original. Fortunately for me I gave my bar a warm up nudge before starting to lay into it. This bar can't possibly do anything in compression and due to the bends in the design, there would be far too much play/slack in tension to be of any appreciable use.
If someone could PM me the hole spacing from left to right side on a rigid STB, I'd really appreciate it. I think i"ll just make my own and use a good steel.
Oh and Manx, please forgive me man, I'm not trying to step on your toes, but just to clarify something before anyone goes shopping for metal, 4140 and 4130 are carbon steels, no nickel content (not ss). Also known as aircraft CroMo and excellent stuff though, absolutely. And tubing, aside from being lighter than solids, also resists fatigue and crack propagation better. It's the primary reason MT bike axles went to quick release (hollow tubes). If any one wants a good Stainless steel (why, I don't know. It's way heavy and has a lower tensile strength than carbon steels) go for a 414 if you can find it in tube, 405 or the readily available 316 grade. Oh, be sitting down when you get your quote.
Otherwise Manxman's right, go 4130/4140. Check out why at matweb.com, look for "Tensile strength, yield" and "elongation", both very important.
Too late for me, but I hope it'll save someone else some cash.
Good write up man.
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Wow!
New guys DO read old threads. Nice to hear from someone with some tech. background for a change. Since I started this thread, I have had no interest at all in
any Aspec products, just based on the negative value of this strut bar.
But, going back to my doubts about the effectiveness of ANY strut bar, if there actually were enough movement of the strut towers to REQUIRE a brace, 1. there would be one there already from the factory, and 2. needing one but not having one, you would see cracked metal and chipped paint from the tops of the struts moving around on top of the painted "tin can" towers. I don't believe that they move. If I am right, it won't matter what material you use for a more rigid bar, it will just sit there, in the way of your master cylinder reservoir.
I still believe that
everyone saying how much improvement they have in handling with
any brand of front strut bar, merely has a really good imagination, and should have spent their money on something that
really works instead.