A Bolt from the Green: Producing Evotech Performance Bolts
Have you seen the range of Evotech Caliper Bolts yet? Launched in 2024, the EP caliper bolts are listed by individual motorcycle model, and customers have a choice of Road or lock-wire compatible Race bolts. Quick-eyed TT fans might have already laid eyes on Evotech caliper bolts. 2025 Superbike winner Davey Todd rode to his win on the 8Ten BMW M1000RR with Evotech caliper bolts straight from our stock room fitted to his machine. That’s our kind of product testing!
However, five years ago, premium bolts like these, just wouldn’t have been available on the Evotech shelves. Evotech Performance parts are precision designed, manufactured and finished to the highest standards. With accuracy of fitting guaranteed by EP’s bespoke designs for each motorcycle, every single component must be of the highest quality. Until 2019, one piece of the kit was clearly letting us down: the off-the-shelf bolts.
It could easily be argued that bolt quality just doesn’t matter. Any bolt of the correct size goes into the motorcycle and holds what it needs to, so why waste our money? To us at Evotech Performance, our response echoes our core mantra: your motorcycle always deserves the best!
For many years, we made use of a range of UK suppliers to provide the best bolts that were currently on the market. Tied to restrictions of set lengths, pitches and stock availability, the bought-in bolts were manufactured from steel with zinc-plating and passivation for corrosion resistance. Whilst this was a vital requirement for bolt reliability, it resulted in a range of colour tints for the bolts. If a product required bolts of different size, the Evotech design team would find quality and colour varying greatly within a single kit. Dissatisfied, we asked ourselves: what would the perfect Evotech Performance supplied bolt look like?
The ideal material for Evotech was 316 stainless steel, often monikered marine-grade or austenitic. Revered for its corrosion resistance and strength, 316 stainless is often used in the production of components for boats, harbour furniture and even submarines - the perfect material choice for motorcycle parts exposed to British weather!
Bringing bolt making within our control also provided a vital benefit: design freedom. Whilst in many replacement bolts, it is always going to be an M10 or M12 fine pitch required, some Evotech parts felt held back by the barriers of bolt size availability. Removing restrictions would allow freedom to have the length, shaft and pitch as we wanted, driven by our pursuit of strength and aesthetics. And, of course, there was no other option than to choose rolled threads.
Another key consideration came from an unlikely source: the Ron Haslam Race School. Based at Donnington Park for many years, the race school were accustomed to seeing their motorcycles take a slide down the track. To avoid costly damage, Evotech crash protection was fitted to each motorcycle in the school’s fleet. Once the EP crash bungs had taken a spill, replacements were on hand but, unexpectedly, the hex style of bolt head became an issue. Requiring a large socket, damage to the bung could make removal a much harder process. Lead mechanic Peter Wetters, AKA Shep, made a simple, perfect recommendation: change the bolt head to an allen/hex key for easier removal.
In January 2019, following a thorough research process, Evotech Performance took delivery of a Citizen L32 Type VIII sliding head lathe. Paired with an IEMCA Bar Feeder, capable of holding 16 bars of 3 metre length material, the L32 was purchased with the sole purpose of bringing in-house the production of bolts for Evotech Crash Protection.
Following the Citizen company moto ‘it is all about precision’, the Citizen L32 sliding head lathe offers flexibility of tooling for Evotech Performance to precisely manufacture premium bolts of varied length, pitch and thread. With two spindles, offering a maximum diameter of 32mm turning at 8,000 rpm, the sliding head makes use of up to 40 tools to profile the material.
Very quickly the benefits of the investment became clear. Bolt colour and production quality was of a consistently high standard; the 316 stainless steel was both strong and corrosion resistant; the rolled threads were secure and consistent. Praise for the improvements to the Evotech Performance Crash bolts came rolling in.
Whilst precision made bolts are always the primary purpose, Company Director and Production Manager Nick Cooper and the savvy Evotech engineers had a second consideration in mind: swarf. Whilst to many the swarf may seem mere rubbish to be rid of as quickly as possible, to Evotech this is still highly valuable. To this end, a Jvonne Boost Compactor was added to compact the waste metal into easily manageable briquettes, also removing and recycling the cutting lubricant to be used again in the L32. The valuable stainless-steel swarf briquettes are then sold back to our metal suppliers, to be recycled into solid material for another trip round the L32.
As you can tell from the range of bolts now on sale on the Evotech Performance website, the Citizen machines and material choice have not let us down, EP bolts are second to none. Precision engineered from strong 316 stainless steel, Evotech Performance bolts fit as accurately as the bespoke motorcycle parts they are supporting. Moving on from crash protection, any Evotech product which requires replacement bolts now have our in-house bolts supplied. Let’s not forget the race-proven range of replacement Caliper Bolts.
As the range of cap-head bolts produced in-house has expanded so have our requirements for machinery. October 2024 saw the arrival of our second Citizen Sliding Head Lathe, this time the L32 Type X, and the delivery date is set for a third machine, L32 Type XII, for Summer 2025. With more machining capacity and capability coming our way, who knows where Evotech will ‘bolt to’ next.
Watch Dan from Evotech Performance introduce the Evotech Bolts making process.
Why should a bolt have a rolled thread? Evotech blog ‘Right Thread Said’ can answer that question for you.
Evotech Caliper Bolts are sold via motorcycle model. Click on ‘Search by Bike’ to find your machine.
Shop for replacement bolts here.