swingarm question.

[soccersteve]

on the 04 kat 600, it the swingarm REGULAR steel, or STAINLESS steel?

thanks

[BeekMan]

Stainless it is not

[WildKat]

well geez, this was a quick thread!!! so makes ya wanna know? thinking of doing something to it steve ?

[blkpitbull]

Beek is right it isnt stainless. So you cant polish it. Trust me I just tried. It is regular steel and easily painted, powfercoated or chromed. I painted mine..... What do you have in mind with yours??

Heres mine...

[soccersteve]

i'm going to "do it yourself" chrome. i just need to know if its stainless or not to determine what chemicals i need. I will be posting pics of my finished product. it'll be at least a week though. and yea, i learned the hard way about not being able to polish. oh well.

[blkpitbull]

Oh yeah definately post pics, i'd like to see how it came out. Good luck!

[trinc]

for future reference - SS doesn't rust. so if it's SS they wouldn't of powdercoated it.

tim

[WildKat]

i love the chrome look, but powder coating is cool too, and is usually alot less to deal with.

[md86]

Beek is right it isnt stainless. So you cant polish it. Trust me I just tried. It is regular steel and easily painted, powfercoated or chromed. I painted mine..... What do you have in mind with yours??

Heres mine...

Rattle-can flat black ? That's what I'm wanting to do to mine .

[SlipKid]

From a design standpoint, stainless is about half as strong as carbon steel weight for weight. So it's probably not the best thing to construct a swingarm out of anyway...

[Mojoe]

you mean the newer kats have a steel swingarm? That sucks. My 1100 has an aluminum one.
And slipkid, it is not because of ss not being strong enough. Aluminum is weakest of them all. It is all in the design for the strength.
The main reason you do not see stainless on a bike is the cost factor. It would probably be a $1500 swingarm out of stainless....more maybe.

[ThAzKat]

only the 1100 did the rest are steel as far as I know. Do you have a spare 1100 arm?

[SlipKid]

And slipkid, it is not because of ss not being strong enough. Aluminum is weakest of them all. It is all in the design for the strength.

I'm not saying you couldn't make a functional swing-arm out of stainless, but why would you want to? It costs more, has half the tensile strength of regular steel (thus requiring more material and weight), and there's no need to have a corrosion resistant swingarm if you route your battery hose correctly

Anyway, I pulled out the old Strength of Materials book from school to check on aluminum's properties. Aluminum wieghs about 35% that of steel per unit volume. Considering 2% carbon cold rolled steel (which is the most likely swingarm material listed in the table in the book), 6061-T6 aluminum has about 75% of the ultimate strength in tension of the CRS and it's shear is about %50. So, by weight, aluminum is stronger than steel! Of course, an aluminum swingarm will be designed differently due to aluminum's differing mechanical properties. It will generally be overall larger in size/complexity and/or utilize members with greater wall thinckness. It will also be stiffer than the more flexible steel units. Still, even with all of that extra material, it remains lighter. And most likely cheaper than stainless...

[ThAzKat]

Yeah but is that his preference? I think it is personal preference in this case.

[Mojoe]

only the 1100 did the rest are steel as far as I know. Do you have a spare 1100 arm?

Yes I do. Unfortunatley I can not part with one at the moment. My spare is being sent of to be widened to fif the Busa rim. I need to keep the other on my bike to be able to move it around to make the swap after the spare is completed. Once that is don. I MIGHT be willing to part with it. I will be experimenting with colors and like the idea of no downtime on my bike. I will think about it and get back to you. I might have a guy who will have one for you. I will check into it if you are serious about it.