Before and After, the caliper rebuild

One of the most eye-catching parts of my little TT2, to judge by the reactions they get, are the AP Lockheed calipers up front. Even those hard-core "that bike isn't vintage" guys stop dead at the sight of them. . . "Ooooh, Lockheeds. . ," often getting down on their knees for a closer look. They actually worked pretty well last year, even though I never did a thing except lockwire them. Since they were working so well, and the brake fluid was no worse than a medium honey color, I took one look at those rusted bleeder screws and passed them by. That's right, I never even bled them. Horrid memories of lying under my split-windshield VW bus, lo these twenty-five years, trying desperately to bleed the brakes, working on the little bleeder screws with penetrating oil and a torch for a solid week and still hearing them go "ping!" one at a time convinced me to leave well enough alone.

Last October, when I was making adapters so I could use those lovely calipers on the new/old conventional (and vintage-legal) forks, Bruce noticed that the pistons weren't retracting all that well, so it was time for a rebuild. The old chrome pistons were totally scabby of course, and rusted beyond recovery, so I went looking for replacements. Nobody seemed to have the new alloy pistons (or give me a real idea on when they'd be able to get them), and likewise nobody seemed to have a full set of stainless. . . the calipers only have two pistons, and of course, they're different. The guys at British Cycle Supply http://www.britishcycle.com/in Wolfville, Nova Scotia at least had the long ones, but I knew I'd be able to get to Bruce's and cut two down on his lathe before he headed for Italy (he seems to be Ducati's US trainer these days). Gil Greenlaw keeps threatening me with a Norton Commando, and if we ever do manage to get to northern Maine and rescue it from the chicken house, I know that the guys at British Cycle will help me keep my sanity. They ship from NS to Canada, and from NJ to the US, seemingly instantly. I'm in NH, and there's a UPS main line from there to here, but I've yet to wait more than a day for orders to arrive. The guys there are really helpful and knowledgeable, and like helping crazy people that call on the phone needing help with yet another project that probably should have been left alone.

I know that this is titled "Before and After," and there's only one pic. That's because after cleaning and flushing, and $250 worth of new pistons, seals, pins, bleeders, and pads, the calipers look exactly the same. Sigh. The carbs, which are about half done, were far more impressive. . . cont'd in our next!