Snapping Ti bolts 3T ARX team

So I was calmly adjusting my stem, a 3T ARX Team with titanium bolts, and snap! One of the steerer clamp bolts sheared straight off.

I was using a Ritchey torque key to make sure i didn't exceed the recommended 5Nm but I was no where near the fully tightened stage.

Anyway, a bit of googling later and it seems the lowish quality Ti hardware is to blame.

The mechanical question is thus:

Is there any reason I can't replace the Ti Bolts with steel ones?
I believe the dimensions are M5 x 15mm

AND
How do I remove the remains of the snapped bolt?
It's the steerer clamp and the snapped bolt is just in one side of the clamp so I cant grip it with anything. I'd hate to ruin a perfectly good stem if I don't do this correctly!

Last question: Where to get high quality bolts from in london?

Cheers!

don't know about a source of quality SS bolts in london, but a screw extractor will retrieve your snapped bolt:

drill pilot hole and insert, the action of insertion unthreads the bolt

excellent. Off to a hardware store now then.

Thanks.

don't know about a source of quality SS bolts in london, but a screw extractor will retrieve your snapped bolt:

drill pilot hole and insert, the action of insertion unthreads the bolt

and then once you've broken the screw extractor, you find that the only thing hard enough to grind out the extractor is a small stone in the dremel.....

seriously, tho' the screw may be fairly loose and easy to move now that the tension is off it. I'm just preparing you for the worst. Good luck.

Got the bolt out. The material of the bolt did not seem to be that hard?

Basically, I used a tiny drill bit (2mm or so) and drilled a small bore through the remains of the bolt while VERY carefully avoiding the edges of the stem. this was surprisingly easy.

Then, not having an extractor I found a small, long self tapping screw and screwed it in until the threads just started to bite.

Once that happened the resistance of the threads allowed me to turn the bolt stub the rest of the way out of it's thread.

Woo! Stem rescued. I bought some replacement SS bolts from Clerkenwell Screws, 6 Stainless M5 10mm for 2 quid is good I think. Although they are not nice socket cap head bolts.

Will be ordering some better replacement from here:
http://www.pro-bolt.com/Products/000500140002

Hope that all makes sense, just in case anybody has a similar issue.

Titanium has a pretty bad fatigue life compared with other alloys such as steel. People get confused by the fact it is well known as a metal with a very high strength to weight ratio, but it is actually pretty crappy in reality and is rather prone to catastrophic failure.

Check out these stem fatigue tests on Sheldon's site. Low-quality titanium can be pretty bad for fatigue.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/stemtesting.htm

Bolts should be tightened in close and successive alternating series. Bolt shouldn't shear off. Ti bolt shouldn't shear off.

Actually Ti and Steel have only specific points of failure. Typically you're talking Ti alloy. But the upshot here is it's good for bolts due to its corrosive resistance.

To remove the bolt depending on how much bolt you've got left exposed, saw a tiny bit and use a flat head screwdriver to screw it out.

seen 2 or 3 of the same make and model of stems with same problem!

easily removed using pretty much the same method as you only when i was drilling the pilot hole in the remainder of the bolt it wound out whilst drilling.

3T's grade of Ti is poor