FOAK: Brembo brake parts (Long & may contain rant)

10 days ago I was washing the bike (BMW F650 GS - 2003) when I noticed
that the rubber boot over the rear brake calliper piston was missing,
AWOL. Next day phoned the local dealer, Clarkes, asked them to order
one. Guess what, no part number. Even the rebuild kit did not include
the boot. The rear brake is a Brembo item

Bless them Clarkes get on to BMW. No joy all BMW UK could supply was a
new complete calliper at £238. At this point i had a Nige type rant. I
mean this is the sort of crap we had to put up with in the 1970's, I
thought we had got beyond this FFS.

< In comes Lozzo with an anti BMW rant>

I phoned BMW UK who were really helpful but pointed out that they were
only able to get complete rear brake callipers from Germany. After 10
minutes on the phone they offered to get somebody in Germany to Skype
me.

2 hours later rather nice lady from BMW HQ appears on Skype. It seems
that Brembo refuse to supply the item as a separate part to BMW, "they
are I think holding us hostage!"

This brake was fitted to a number of bikes from the Pegaso through to
assorted more exotic stuff. I am going to try the local 'prillia
dealer and Wolverhampton Duke. I have tried breakers, Motobins,
Motorworks etc but there are not many of the callipers about and most
report the boot is on its last legs or not there. None have access to
a source of new rubber boots. Both Motobins and Motorworks said they
would love to know if I find a source.

So FOAK - Can anybody suggest a source of Brembo parts who can help? A
quick google has not come up with much in way of a lead. Either its
not available or my google mojo was in partnership with the rubber
boot and they jointly went AWOL.

Boxerboy.

 

:

<snip>

I trust you have asked on UKGSer.com f650.co.uk & f650.com ?

 

Actually no, I don't belong to any of the "groups" - Good thinking
Batman

<toggles to open a screen>

Boxerboy

 

In message

Nope. KTM do this kind of thing too. The rubber sleeve over the mirror
stalk is not a separate item. You have to get an entire mirror at £20.

 

All I suggest is that you take the (remnants of) your rubber boot to a
good car spares and accessories place (men in brown coats are a good
sign) and see if they can match it.

My guess is there's some ShiteOldFiat that has something the same.

 

A new career beckons:
http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail....stProductName=Soft Rubber Moulding Kit (500g)
Steve

 

Absolutely guaranteed there's a specialist stockist of rubber
boots/gaiters/thingies out there in Internetland. You know, the kind of
shop you used to find down a back street, where the bell above the
well-worn door went 'ding' and inside you were confronted by an array of
boxed wooden shelving reaching back to the end of the Universe and
several aforementioned Blokes in Brown Coats coming and going on
mysterious missions in and out the racking, clutching dockets of some
description. There was always a faint smell of rubber, chalk, grease and
Hylomar or some other sealing compound hanging around and if you were
lucky, and a regular, a free cup of coffee from the machine at the end
of the counter.

 

"'Ose"

 

Coffee? Machine? All these places I know have kettles and tea.

I was in one such the other weekend, and to my surprise he son of a
friend was in there, yacking to the staff. Turned out he lived above the
shop. I was quite envious.

There's a really good such emporium in Tunbridge Wells. Sells motor
bulbs loose, in that the staff open a big drawer, and select one bulb
from a big box of them, instead of you selecting from a rack of those
horrible blister packs.

But I know what you mean. The bell above the door has to be on one
ofthose coiled spring things, and there's always one of those long
grabbers-onna-stick to retrieve items from high shelves.

There's usually a brand new factory manual for a Riley on the shelves
somewhere, as well.

 

The odd thing about those places is that when you drive past you'd never
know they were there and mysteriously from outside you never, ever see
anyone enter or leave - but the door is hard worn at the edge and bottom
by thousands of greasy hands and boots over the years. Yet, when you
walk in you're not the first, but always the second or third standing
there and get served bloody quickly - unless your face is that of a
stranger or simply doesn't fit and you'll stand there for hours. They
can tell, you know - they know when an imposter ventures forth in his
borrowed overalls to masquerade as a Rubber Fancier or Fiddler of Greasy
Bits and aren't taken in by a pair of ovies or dirty boots. It's all
about the body language, is that.

 

There was an amazing Emporium in Glasgow for bike stuff. Set back from Gt
Western Road. Old factory unit over 3 floors. forgotten the name now, but
they had everything. You could walk in with a busted brake/clutch/throttle
cable and they would make you up a replacement there and then.

 

Oh that it was that simple. I do not have the old boot or any of its
remnants it went AWOL I know not where.

Boxerboy

 

London had Hamrax Motors in Ladbroke Grove - that was probably the
archetypal such shop.

 

Karparts (yes I know) in Stroud is a bit like that. Loads of drawers with
bits and bobs in, gaskets hanging from nails on the wall and so on. I took
my father in law there becaue he needed an exhaust for his Moggie Minor.
"You can get anything in here" I said. Sure enough as we were standing in
the queue, the bloke behind overheard what we wanted and he had a stainless
exhaust in his shed that he wanted to sell.

--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

Ummm, that's how we sell bulbs, and our shop has only existed for 13
months.

 

One of those shops that has always been there, even though you never saw it
before?

--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

No, it was a brand new Kawasaki dealership as from Easter weekend last
year. We buy bulbs in boxes of 10 and sell them out of the box as
single items, as they should be sold.

 

It was a weak Pratchett reference. Not worth bothering with really.

--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

I read a Pratchett or two and had planned to read more but the urge to
walk downstairs and pick another off the shelf never really bit.

 

Pah! Only boxes of 10? The one in Tun Wells has boxes that contain what
looks like 50....