Scary logic and false economy
" I find it hard bring myself to spend "real" money on any mod when I know I will have to take it off in another 5 or 10 years, and reinstall the old parts if I can find them, so I can sell the machine for $37,000,000 on ebay"
I do hope this comment was meant wholly as a joke.
50 years ago, the Vincent had good brakes that were well able to keep you out of trouble. The other traffic on the road also had drum brakes, skinny tyres, and was more considerate.
Today there is far more traffic, driven by thoughtless and inconsiderate drivers chatting on their mobile phones, listening to their music players, and virtually all of them will have disc brakes, and ABS, and better tyres, and you will have NO chance of outbraking them with feeble standard drum brakes.
Anything you can do to improve matters in your favour has to be money and time well spent, whether it be by fitting heavyweight cables and ribbed drums, or TLS conversions, or 8" brakes, or discs.
It is no consolation being able to shout "It's original!" as you slide into the back of a truck.