There will be no 'bloodbath' concerning the steering head originating with me. Despite the fact that this modification improves both comfort, handling and safety I have only sold about 200 of these. I assume that most of those who have bought them are riders rather than collectors and are suspicious that the appearance will be changed. In fact the appearance is hardly noticeable and I had looked at John Emmanuel's bike over several years before I noticed what he had done. What about internal mods. The rocker bushes were known to be a problem for years and one has a choice of boring the tunnels and using oversized bushes or using the mod which clamps the bush to the tunnel roof. How about the clutch. My mod of using a needle roller thrust race is inside and invisible but it will not give an original feel. How about the sealing to prevent oil leaking into the clutch. Early was bad, 'D' was better, my mod even better. Sealing the valve lifter boss at the rear of the timing cover. It can be modified internally to prevent leaks but will not leak like the original. It is MM's bike and he can restore it to whatever state he sees fit. That is nothing to do with the rest of us, but he will have a bike that is less usable than it could be.
Bloodbath... Perhaps a poor choice of words? In any event, it wasn’t directed at you. It was intended as an example of how strongly people might feel about some modifications. In a conversation with MM that took place elsewhere, I expressed my opinion on modifications. I believed it would be a good idea to include those discussions along with reviewing some of the Vincent’s weak points. I also believed that we could collectively express our opinions on what modifications are worthwhile, but in the end respect the fact that a restoration to “as original” has value and if that is the wish of the OP, then so be it. In that conversation I actually brought up the modified steering stem as a “good” example of something that “could” be incorporated into the restoration. I believe the mod is worthwhile and (albeit slowly) I’m making a similar version of that modified steering stem for my own use. Anyway, I’m no longer convinced discussions on modifications should be included.