Originally Posted by
50PlusCycling
When I buy a bike, I usually take it apart, clean it up, and put it back together. I like to replace all of the hardware with titanium. Most of the bolts on a bike are M5 or M6 size, I just have to measure how long they are, then order them on Amazon. Titanium doesn’t rust, and swapping out the steel hardware can save some ounces of weight.
I was lucky to buy Titanium screws in 2020, when covid has started. You're right, M5 & 6 in two lengths (I think 18 & 20 mm) is good for everything.
I checked sometimes last year and they sold for several times as much, like they were made of gold.
Could have been due to that boat that got stuck in the shipping canal or the covid that hit the Chinese shipping yard. The reason I was checking was that I thought I needed shorter screws for the head that holds the round tube of the bars but it turned out, I could use the longer ones I already had bought previously. Didn't take the bars off till I was packing the bike for shipping to Europe and I figured I should replace those screws then.
I think those old bolts were likely the original ones that came with the bike, not Titanium and had painted heads with something like black lacquer. That's why they would flake the black off and rust inside the holes where you insert Allen hex key.
Normally looked at, it wasn't that bad, but taking a close up pic revealed their sorry state.