The basic problem is that here in the metrically retarded USA, 99.9% of everything in our local hardware stores is in inch sizes. The only machines that use this stuff are lawn mowers, Hardley-Ablesons, and pre-1975 American cars. Even the American car brands have been totally metric since about 1980.
So when you go to a hardware store here, you have about 50 meters of completely untouched racks overflowing with beautiful inch-based hardware of every description that's completely useless unless you're pimping out a Harley, lawn mower, or ancient hot rod. They hardly ever sell any of it, so it's always in stock
Stuffed in the middle, there might be one or two drawers with a small selection of basic low-grade metric hardware at eye-watering prices. Much of it is completely missing, since it is in high demand and never, ever gets restocked. What's left has been mixed together randomly by frustrated shoppers and unsupervised children.
I am seriously not exaggerating in the least, unfortunately.
You will not find metric hardware at a big box store like sLowes, Meantards, or Clone Depot. Your only shot is a smaller hardware store like Ace or DoItBest. And you have to go look for yourself -- if you call or even go and ask, they will have no idea what you're talking about. Just tell Skippy the teenager or Henry the senile ancient wanderer of aisles to buzz off and let you look yerdamself -- they only get confused in the presence of millimeters.
Fastenal is only slightly better -- in my experience, Fastenal specializes in the phrases "we don't got none o' that" and "we might be able to order that". Again, 99.9% of what they stock is inch sizes because they'd rather keep their shelves full than actually sell fasteners.
Two places that will save your sanity:
http://boltdepot.com
Order any quantity, mostly standard metric thread pitches available.
http://mcmaster.com
Lots of oddball stuff available, including threaded rod, oddball thread pitches, etc. Excellent per-piece pricing, but many fasteners are sold in packs of 25, 50 , or 100.
Peruse the technical diagrams and info until you understand how fasteners are specified. "Socket head cap screws" are what most of us call "allen head bolts".
Both have no minimum order, and fast, low-cost shipping.
In many cases, you might consider ordering new hardware from Suzuki -- it's surprisingly cheap, and $1.25 for a new axle nut or whatever is probably easier than cleaning up the old one to look decent.
There's also a basic problem that it is simply impossible in the US to get JIS metric hardware -- even metric stuff can be slightly different because all we can get is SAE metric stuff. The threads are the same, fortunately, but you mostly run into this as mismatches between thread and wrench size.
For example, the Japanese spec for 8mm bolts and nuts is a 12mm wrench size. All we can get in the US is 13mm, which sometimes creates a clearance problem, or just looks wrong or requires us to carry another &%$#@ wrench. Same with 10mm fasteners -- the Japanese stuff has a 14mm head, while the US spec is a 15mm wrench size. The standard thread pitch is usually different, too.
Can't we all just get along...?
