I'm not the best mechanic the world has ever seen, and I think I've really screwed up this time. I've rounded off one of the Allen bolts holding the disc on my motorcycle's front wheel. I was trying to swap the discs over to an after-market set. What am I supposed to do now, I've heard about drilling and tapping, but what does this involve?

It's probably best not to get into this situation, but now that you have, we'll try to get you out of your rounded hole. You first choice, and probably best one, given your admitted lack of aptitude, is to get the motorcycle to a professional. Seeing as you've not got the bolt out, do all the others back up and ride it to a problem-fixer. Any big bike dealer should be able to sort the problem out in a jiffy.

If you want to have a crack at it yourself you can try to grab the outer edge of the allen bolt head with some vice grips. One other option is to try and tap a slightly larger allen bit into the head. The best option though is to use a screw or stud extractor – a reverse-threaded, tapered, hardened steel bit that grips inside the allen head and draws the bolt out.

We wrote some articles about removing damaged fasteners before, see Removing Broken Bolts, Damaged Screws, and Stubborn Nuts and Bolts and Damaged Fasteners Removal - Part 2. They probably are good reading before you start to resolve the current situation.

Hello Jim,

Where are you located?

Quote by: ThaiDesign

Hello Jim,

Where are you located?

@ThaiDesign,

I am located at Phet Kasem road in Bangkok

Jim

He Jim,

Phet Kasem road is not so far from our location, therefore if you send us an email with your address to (before 20:00 hour) we can pickup you and your motorcycle and fix it in a few minutes. We have all the tools and machinery here available.

Maybe you can weld a nut on it and get it off that way.

Good luck.