I have reused bolts from an older bagger that was converted to a trike (because it was the size I needed for my wider than stock hub). I installed these myself in February 2011 and never had one loosen up. I also only used blue loctite.

As another said, I keep a red paint mark on each bolt and washer to always quickly verify that they never move. I think the horror stories make it sound way worse than reality.

I say do whatever helps you to sleep at night.

 

There has got to be something wrong with the mating surface or the bolts. My 01 manual does NOT say to replace the bolt, just to red them, and torque.
I have never replaced them and it is all that I can do to get them out when I do my tire.
I've had at least three different pulleys on it due to wear never had a problem, always hard to get them out, and yea even have to use heat sometimes.
Red Locktite bolts do not just come out, there has to be some reason.

 

Got to thinking, what year bike? Does it have the dampeners in the sprocket?

 

Looking for black pully bolts. Where can i get some?

 

"Some will say they are designed to shear off in an emergency situation but I have yet to see that in any official publication" ... I hope this is meant to be funny ???

 

In my original post I said I saw him loctite the bolts, but when I took them out to see what size I needed I didn't see any loctite on the threads of the old bolts.

I bought grade 8 bolts from Ace, and took it down to the shop. He has a real lift instead of a floor jack.

Everything looked good, he checked the threads in the hub and said they were good. I know for a fact he put red loctite on every bolt this time.

I've read pages of threads where people have had all 5 bolts shear off in the wheel. All 5 of mine just backed out, only one was hitting the swingarm, and it never broke off, just grinded the head down a little bit. Sure made a lot of noise.

I'll be checking them from now on.

 

Not meant to be funny. There is a big pulley bolt failure thread here somewhere and I believe about 2 or 3 posters stated that they were designed to shear off to prevent rear wheel lock up. Not completely crazy, same type of design on commercial aircraft in case an engine starts coming apart the engine connections will give way before you lose the wing. Got a pilot buddy down the street that had an engine literally sheared off after takeoff, came back and landed with wing intack.