My previous blog post detailed the process of setting up a DIY Zinc plating kit. This post describes the process of acid pickling and Zinc plating.
The first thing to do was to check the temperature of the acid salts solution. Although the kit’s instructions do not specify a temperature I still checked to see what a “room temperature” was.
Acid Salts Pickling Solution At Room Temperature
This blog post charts the setup of my DIY Zinc plating kit.
I bought the plating kit off ebay from this seller. I splashed out a bit extra to buy the “Deluxe” kit which includes a digital thermometer and a pickling kit. The kit comes with all of the chemicals you need and the containers to store/use the plating electrolyte and pickling acid.
Comprehensive Plating And Pickling Kit
This must have been my fourth attempt to test fit the TZR125RR Belgarda front end (forks, wheel, brake caliper and mudguard) to Mildred. The only thing that had stopped my previous attempt was the issue with the spindle hole in the TDR250 speedo drive being a few mm too small. Thanks to Ginge at work, it was now the right size so I knew that I could at least fit the front wheel.
Front Wheel Fitted - 1
The last time I tried to test fit my hybrid TDR250/TZR250/TZR125RR front end it showed up a number of issues which included:
Since my last attempt I have bought a TZR125RR wheel (slightly wider than the previous TZR250 wheel) and wheel spindle from a spare parts seller on ebay. This should remove issues 3. and 4. from the list above. (It’s also a Brembo wheel and I’m a Brembo whore).
TZR125RR Wheel With EBC Disc From TZR250 Wheel
Just when I thought that Friday’s couldn’t get any better there was this Friday. I arrived home after an average working week when I spotted a small box that had arrived in the post from Nick Chambers at RDbitz.
After trying to source replacement caliper pistons and seals myself for the rather rare front caliper, I decided to let an expert have a proper go at completely refurbishing the caliper. I’d asked him to vapour blast the caliper, fit new pistons, new seals, supply new pads and refurbish all of the fasteners and fittings. I didn’t expect it back until August as Nick was off on holiday right about now but it was turned round in about 2 weeks. Have a good holiday Nick!
I don’t really need any more words to describe the transformation, here are some before and after photos:
Front Caliper - Before - Side
I’ve been a faithful XBox and XBox 360 gamer for as long as I can remember even through the horrible red-ring-of-death days. (I’ve had 2 fail on me).
My latest 360 was starting to behave a little erratically and at the same time I received an email advertisement from Game saying that I could pre-order the new XBox360 for £199. I had just over £20 in Game points to spend so that made my mind up for me, I wanted some of that piano black, near silent operation gaming experience.
The new 360 is not actually that much smaller than the original but the larger HDD (250GB), reduced fan noise, HDMI output and hopefully better reliability swung it for me.
New 360 Next To Original
I’ve been thinking that there has to be more to mobile life than Apple’s iPhone for some time but never had the balls to jump all in with an Android device. I’ve got an iPhone as a business phone and that’s working well, I have no complaints about what it does and how it does it. I just want a choice, no I’m not buying a Blackberry.
I’d bought a Sony Ericsson Satio about 6 months ago as my personal mobile for it’s high spec camera. My god I tried to get on with it’s abortion of a resistive touchscreen and clunky UI but enough is enough and it was time to move on.
I wanted something small that I could use to make calls, send the odd SMS and maybe use some basic social networking services like Twitter and Facebook. It had got to the stage with the Satio that I would avoid having to use it for personal calls and SMS’s, it was that horrible to use. Some pine loving idiot needs royally shagging for that clusterfuck of a phone. Anyone want to buy it off me?
This is a salutary blog post about how and how not to remove a roller bearing from a steering stem.
As with most components and parts in this project, if I can replace with new or better then I will. This includes bearings, one of which is found at the bottom of the steering stem that came with the Belgarda front end.
How It All Started
The TZR125RR Belgarda front end I bought came with the original fit Brembo 4 pot front caliper. I’m a shallow git so I’m smitten with anything Brembo or Ohlins (or any other well regarded motorcycle parts) so I wanted to strip down and completely refurbish the Belgarda caliper.
Like everything else with the front end, this caliper has probably only had its pads changed in its 16 year life so it needed a complete strip down to start with.
Front Caliper - Before - Side
This blog post covers the test fitting of the following front end components:
I previously had a TZR250 front wheel fitted to the TDR250 forks and this included a spindle spacer required to mount the narrower hub of the TZR250 wheel in the TDR250 forks. With the spacer fitted, the TZR250 wheel is a good fit into the Belgarda forks.
Front Wheel Test Fitting - Front
