I figured that I couldn't be the only lucky one with this problem, so I thought I'd share a little fix with ya. Well, not really a little fix, but a cheap fix.

On the 03 hubs (all aluminum) you'll find that due to the rotor, you are not able to make sure that your studs are tight. They are an allen head/socket head bolt. The problem starts when your are constantly taking and switching tires.... tread to paddle and then paddle back to tread. I used an impact gun at a low setting and started to find that I was losing the thread on the inside of the hub. I had lost two on one side, and figured that I had to do something. My choice was to heli coil the suckers or look for something that might work better. I chose to go to a bigger hardened bolt and try to make it stay in the hub.

Here is what I did....

Ordered new hardened 12mm X 1.75 X 2in allen head/sockethead bolts

Drilled out the old holes on my drill press and tapped each hole.

Used a rasp bit (available at MOST hardware stores - Home Depot) and machined the whole for the socket head on the drill press - takes about 5minutes per arm of the hub. You are only taking out about 32nd of material all the way around.

Red Loc tite and seated each bolt.

Epoxied the outer part of the thread as a second stage lock. Just enough but not enought to really even see or make any problems for mounting the wheels.

Picked up the new shouldered nuts and I'm good to go.

I did both sides and the job came out very clean

Cost me about $23.00 vs about $50 for the heli and inserts.

Interesting note on the stock hubs, one was actually heli coiled from the factory. I purchased the bike out of the box, and it had a heli coil. Also you'll find that the stock studs aren't hardened and the nuts are a cut/lock nut. The problem with the nuts is that the tear up the non-hardened studs. If you haven't had the problem, be careful..... it's looming.

The stock bolts are 1 3/4's and I put in 2". They are a quarter inch longer than stock, but look cool.

cheers

 

This one belongs in the "tip of the week" area....thanks for sharing!

 

Your very welcome

 

I did the same thing when I ordered some crome lug nuts. They were 10x1.25 and the stock bolts are 10x1.5 so they did not fit. I bought some hardened 10x1.25 allen head bolts and re-tapped the hubs to 10x1.25 to accomidate the new bolts, Applied some loctite and torqued them down. I did this front and rear in about an hour. Check out my pics of the lugs.