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2 pots for me too, good enough for Rob Phillis then good enough for me !

Thanks for the ideas Swiss and will certainly help with making up the templates. I was thinking more about the fabrication aspects... my friend bought online some lovely CNC milled brackets for attaching 4 pot Brembos to his Bandit-XR69 tribute. I have no problem upgrading brakes to improve power, feel, wet weather performance and to exploit the grip of modern rubber which far exceeds the stuff we used back in the day. I’ve some 18” wheels to fit for this purpose. I love seeing and do own “factory correct and original” bikes but it does seem to be in our nature to want to try and improve or individualise our bikes.

My standard brakes work well in the dry but I’m also looking at an upgrade to Brembo 2-pots as they seem to be a reasonable upgrade and readily available. AP Lockheed would work well too I’m sure. If anyone has ideas for getting some nice mounting brackets machined up, I’d like to hear about it.

Hi I had my forks updated to cartridge internals by Maxton. Adjustable rebound in one leg, compression in the other. Very happy with the improvement and retains the “look” of the bike of course. I think we shortened the stanchions a little whilst raising the rear too in order to improve the geometry as it is a very lazy steering head angle. The bike is still “lively” at speed though...

Finally measured the shocks... 355mm free length 335mm with 12.5 stone rider Measured between centres of mounting points

Sorry ... just saw this. Not sure of the final length off hand. I’ll try and measure them on the bike for you.

Looks great! I had two... first one I dispatched to smithereens “back in the day”. The second I did a complete restore and regret selling it ever since. A very handsome bike!

I confess chops aren't really my cup of tea but, fair play, that does look really cool

The Harris pipe was on it when I bought it, obstructs the oil drain so maybe not quite the correct model. Regardless it’s in decent nick, like the rest of the bike, tidy, presentable and usable but not mint.

Thanks for all the help so far. I’ll be looking at the wheels and a brake upgrade over the winter as I want to enjoy the bike during the summer. I’m very pleased with the Maxton suspension which does a good job of controlling the mass of the thing. It has compression damping only adjustment on the rear shocks with compression adjustment on one fork leg and rebound adjustment on the other. On the settings ‘as supplied’ the bike is much improved on good roads when pushing-on a bit but the ride can feel a little choppy on some motorway surfaces. I’m sure that could be dialled out but likely at the expense of some other area. I’ll experiment a little on next week’s trip to Belgium. The bike does still get a bit wobbly at higher speeds despite the geometry changes so a steering damper is on the shopping list. Any ideas or pics of tidy mounting arrangements would be appreciated. I just love riding it. The engine is wonderful, the power and the sound - not too loud around town or on the motorway yet becomes a spine-tingling howl as the revs climb higher. Feels faster than it actually is which is good for me considering today’s speed camera obsessed roads. It picks up the front wheel easily in first and the girlfriend likes it a lot more than the Fireblade. What’s not to like?

Went to Northern Ireland and back with zero problems, love the torque of that motor!

Quick pic collecting the bike this morning...

Not much paint or laquer stands up to brake fluid but I’ve had good results with VHT caliper paint. The satin black looks great but they don’t do a gold.

To be fair the Phillis bike doesn't look too "jacked-up" and also looks like it has the same Brembo 2-pots that I'm thinking of using.

It could have been Davida of helmet fame? They are in Birkenhead and used to produce things other than helmets but I didn't know that the made fork braces. I just bought a Tarozzi for me ET-EX. Regarding the arse up - head down position, Maxton measured up the bike and determined that the steering head angle is so lazy on the standard bike that ideally they would raise the rear by 75mm to get it even close to what is used on more modern bikes without cutting and welding. I forget the figure they work to. Obviously that's not going to work, so we agreed a compromise to steepen it as much as practical without losing too much ground clearance. The objective being to improve the turn-in and also minimise the high speed instability which may be related to lack of weight on the raked-out front end. With their suspension set-up it won't be difficult to drop the rear or raise the front should it proves desirable. The only problem is that the rear shock mounts to suit the Metmachex swing arm aren't back from the anodisers so it will be another week before I get the bike back. On the "plus-side" the Eblag 18" wheels arrived yesterday and look great but I think that will be a job for the winter.