focusonBritishindustryfocusonBritishindustryfocusonBritishindustry Zed-Parts
Nestling in the heart of the Worcestershire countryside yet only a couple of miles from the M5, is a bike business that is bucking the economic trend
It takes a lot of bottle to start a business during a recession but then Oz and Debs are a very special couple and their business, Zed-Parts, has already been recognised as something special for many reasons.
They won the regional council award for ‘Beating the Recession’ in 2009 and the year before that, they came through to the final 25 in the country for the prestigious Barclays Bank ‘Trading Places’ Award, which is offered to those who have made dramatic changes in their life after unforeseen circumstances. This is particularly poignant because Oz could never have foreseen the lorry that hit him from behind and broke his back while he was riding his beloved Z1300. As Oz says “You just can’t sit around bemoaning the fact that things have changed, you’ve gotta deal with the new situation.” He could no longer continue as a Driving Instructor and there aren’t many employers who are interested in someone who is living on morphine to dull the pain, so after initial recovery, Zed- Parts was born in the garage of the family home. To begin, they were simply fulfilling a demand for bits and bobs people wanted for bike rebuilds in the immediate area, but they concentrated on building up the fastener business that now provides complete engine bolt kits, or any part thereof, for loads of models from every manufacturer, which they mail all over the world. This is not a box of bolts though. If you order a fastener kit from Oz and Debs, everything is bagged in sets: The cam cover, the clutch cover etc, so they couldn’t be easier to use. The way to beat a recession is to diversify and deal with customer demand and in August last year they were growing so big they had to move to their current premises.
Here there is room to provide the service that Oz always wanted – rebuilding Kawasaki Z series bikes. He’ll take on any job and is well capable, but big Z thirteens and thousands is where his heart and his expertise lie. From an engine service to a frame-up restoration, they all have one thing in common- absolute cleanliness. The workshop premises are
18 The ROAD
Oz and Debs run Zed Parts while bringing up a family of four and a menagerie of animals, including cats, rabbits, hampsters and squirrels, they’ve also had to deal with serious health problems and yet still won the regional council award for ‘Beating the Recession’ in 2010
spotless and as Oz says, “you just can’t work in filth.”
“MAG is fighting to protect a way of life, so why would every bike business not support MAG?”
This in turn, has created the cleaning side of the business and riders now post carb sets and brake calipers from all over the country to be cleaned and rebuilt at Zed-Parts. Debs and Oz, you’ll have gathered, don’t do things by halves, so after a thorough degreasing, parts are ultrasonically cleaned using the non-abrasive microscopic cavitation process (google it!).
They’ll clean any part from any bike and also
offer blasting services, including baking soda blasting, which doesn’t leave any residue in oilways or cavities and is another demonstration of the attention to detail that makes the whole service special. With big Zeds now getting older, many parts are getting hard to find, so Zed-Parts have started remanufacturing bits, using British companies. Exhaust valves and cam guides come from local sources in a small village near Bromsgrove, but there are many parts Oz now turns himself, like swinging arm pins and water bypass hoses. Every engine or bike build throws up one more part that is no longer available, so if a Zed enthusiast somewhere in the world isn’t already remanufacturing it, he’ll make sure it gets made.
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