Aluminum vs. Steel

Many parts of the suspension linkage system are made of aluminum.  

Suzuki uses stamped steel links on the Gen 1 V-Stroms because they are incredibly cheap to manufacture.  They literally stamp them out of sheets of mild steel and they will do the job.  Regular steel (AS36) has a tensile strength of 58,000 - 79,800 psi and yield strength of 36,300 psi. 

It's not so much the material, but how the material is used that matters.  Suzuki uses a single thick aluminum link (probably cast aluminum) on the 2014 DL1000.  While cast aluminum isn't as strong as many other alloys, the amount of material used makes up for the difference in material thickness. 

7075-T6 aluminum is stronger than most regular steels.  7075-T6 has a tensile strength of 83,000 psi and yield strength of 73,000.  For example, a piece of 707-T6 that is 0.25" by 1" by 6"of 7075-T6 will be stronger than regular steel of the same size.  Our 7075-T6 links are not only made from a stronger material, but they are both thicker and wider than the stock links.

6061-T6 has a tensile strength of 45,000 psi and yield strength of 40,000 psi.  6061-T6 will need to be ~50% thicker to be as strong as regular steel.   The stock links are 6 mm thick.  Our 6061-T6 links are both wider and 159% as thick as the stock links.

303 stainless, while machinable, has a tensile strength of 89,900 psi and yield strength of 34,800 psi.  While most of us think of stainless steel as superior to regular steel because it doesn't corrode in the same way as regular steel, it isn't necessarily a better choice in all applications.