Brake Caliper Bolts

[SIMONGS]

Sorry this is a dumb question. I'm replacing as many bolts as I can on my R65LS with shiny stainless ones.  I had an R80RT years ago that had stainless everywhere and it looked lovely. So, my question is, if I do one bolt at a time, do I dare replace the caliper bolts?  Or should I plan to bleed the whole brake system for being silly?

[Bob_Roller]

If you remove one bolt at a time, chances are you won't have to bleed the brake system .
Also, the bolts most likely have never been removed since the bike was assembled .
The 6 calipers that I have taken apart ATE and Brembo, those bolts are quite difficult to loosen up, when they did, it was with a loud crack .

[SIMONGS]

Thanks. And thanks for being someone else looking at this forum on Christmas Day 

[Bob_Roller]

I'm at work with not much to do today !!!

[mrclubike]

Like Bob said
If you are talking about the bolts that hold the 2 half's together
They can be very difficult to loosen
I am not sure I would disturb them

I am not a big fan of SS bolts either
They can cause issues when used with aluminum

[Tony Smith]

If you are able to log Sen them at all then one at a time will be just fine.

Do not enter into a contest of wills with the bolts as if you found out the key you are in a world of pain.

[georgesgiralt]

Hello,
Stainless steel bolts are great for the look, but I won't replace high tensile bolts with them.
SS bolts are low strength and can't replace anything above and including 6.8. So they are good to hold a pan, but not much else.
Last but not least, the assembling bolts in the brembo caliper have to be changed every time you remove them.
When removed, you'll see why... Corroded, and maimed by the removing....

[dogshome]

Ditto on the caliper bolts here. My workbench is screwed to the wall and chem-bolted to the floor for a reason. I needed a very long bit of tube and almost resorted to feet as well as hands to split the front calipers. You have to do this to change caliper seals and clean the piston bores properly. Would I attempt this on the bike? No.

Cast Iron car calipers generally come apart easier, but then most have my cars have not had the bolts in them for maybe 40 years.

Stainless bolts also do strange things and are easy to mangle or complicit in mangling things they connect into!

If they are really rusty and offending to look at, you could fit caps to them. The nice shiney ones on my calipers stand out the other way on my 'original' condition bike 

[skippyc]

Use good anti seize on them when they go into alloy.