I have brakes on the Zed !

New pistons, seals, bleed nipples, braided lines, copper washers, banjo bolts, brake pads and fluid. All fitted and working fine with no apparent leaks.

Have pushed the bike up and down the drive a few times until i got knackered and it certainly stops. I’ve had to take a little off the pads to get them in and the back is still binding a bit but it feels like real progress

Just been to Stoneleigh Classic Japanese Motorcycle show/autojumble and despite there being sod all there really to write about I did find a matching brake caliper off a Z1000

I think the great God Zed must have been looking down on me, since I walked past this particular pile of brake parts on the floor two or three time before this caliper jumped out at me. Not literally obviously but it was most certainly the only 43mm caliper in the place. In fact there were very few Zed parts in the place at all.

I now have enough parts to put two front calipers back together with fresh pistons and seals which has made my weekend. I was starting to think this was going to be a major pain in the butt that would hold me up for a while.

Ok so it’s Jan now and only 3 months from now I think we might see some sun again, with that in mind I really wanted to make some progress with the Zed over Christmas. Things have been moving on in the garage but as the new year broke I couldn’t help feel like this bike was never going to see day light in spring under it’s own steam. With the latest set back I am more convinced this is the case. I bought spares prior to Christmas to overhaul the brakes and after cleaning and spraying the front calipers I now find that they are different sizes. This only came to my attention when I put the two pistons together in the cleaning tray and realized they are different sizes.

But hey, this could go some way to explaining why the brakes are shit and maybe with the correct calipers they may be less shit. I do need to source a replacement caliper however and for a 33 year old bike this may not be easy or it may be very expensive.

At lease she looks like a bike again and with all the new paint and polishing she looks fantastic.

This weekend coming there is a jap classic show at Stoneleigh, I will be taking a big long list of shopping and top of will be a replacement caliper