Staff bikes: Kawasaki GPz550 - Rear disc on front wheel

More surprises from my bought-unseen £300 GPz. When I removed the warped front brake discs to replace them, I found that in fact only one was a front disc. The other was a rear. They’re the same diameter but the rear is thicker.

More worryingly, one of the bolts appeared to have been held in place by some kind of filler. There was no thread left where it had been, only some bits of crumbly grey stuff. The bolt itself had been mysteriously filed down on two sides.

That meant leaving the bike chained to a lamppost on a North London Street with the front end supported by a jack while the wheel was repaired with a thread insert. Two weeks later it was back together with new EBC discs and pads.  

Just in time to go to the Ace Café’s Kawasaki Sunday last weekend. My bike was the biggest bag of nails there but I’m sure I detected an inverted snobbery attaching some small credibility to it. “At least yours is old. Most the stuff here is brand new,” one rider said.

Kawasaki GPz550
Owned since: January 2010
Price: £300
Mileage: 24,166
Bits added: Motad four-into-one exhaust (£296), grab rail (£10), Avon Road Rider tyres (£115), EBC front brake discs and pads (£252.90)
Favourite thing: No-nonsense styling.
Least favourite thing: Rust.

Further reading:
Staff bike blogs | Kawasaki GPZ550 blog

GPZ55010 BLOG10