I bought some frame sliders for my 05 r6 and havent had the chance to install them cause ive been really busy with college. So they have been in their box for a while, i cheked them yesterday cause i was going to install them next weekend and found out that the bolts are a little rusty. I took them to the store that sold them to me but wouldnt take them back. I didnt know they where rusty since they were still in the box. Should i clean the bolts a little and install them anyway or just buy some new ones. Im thinking to write to Protek to see if they change them for me. Cause i dont want to put rusty **** on my new 05 r6. Any advise would be apreciated.

The bolts on your sliders rusted because of a: the high amount on salt iun the air in your locale, and b: the lower quality of metal used for the fastener.
Yamaha generally uses aluminum, titanium, and stainless to make various fasteners. They have the money to afford and want to market the lightest bike in the 600cc class. Pro-Tek doens't care about weight, they need to make a product that can withstand brute force. Which is why their fastener is probably steel, like a grade 5 bolt or something similar.

Hey Sonny,

Sorry to hear about the rust. But as fierohink said, the rust came due to the lower grade metal of which the bolts are made. They would have rusted on your bike just the same, maybe not along the grooves, but on whatever part of the bolt was showing.

You could ask Protek for replacements, but the rust would still most likely form on those bolts as well with time.

You could find some better quality (rust resistant) bolts at your local hardware store for a couple of bucks as a quick cheap fix.

You could also simply clean the bolts to remove the rust, but it may (and most likely will) form again.

Also, since very little of the bolt will actually be showing (unless someone looks down into your slider) it's probably not going to make much of a difference or be that much of an eyesore.

Do what you will though man, you've got a couple of options as far as I can tell. That's all I got.

yep, crappy metal, hi iron. id say get good ones and if things rust easily where you are, i would definitly install whatever bolts you do put in with some sort of anti-seize compound. you should always use it but some people get lazy. you will thank me when it comes time to remove them. nickel anti-sieze works good, mil-g-83282 works absolutely wonderful (hard to find though), lubriplate, any kind of grease is better than nothing. if you do come across some bolts rusted on, wd-40 works ok but mouse-milk works wonders, especially with a little bit of heat (heat gun), careful with heat though, dont melt your fairings.

What may be more of a concern is that if the quality of the bolts are poor then the sliders may be of equally poor construction. The last thing you want is to drop the bike and for the sliders to twist the frame. I purchased some R&G sliders and from personal experience they work quite well.

But hey you may never drop the bike :)