Chris,
The vintage machined-down clamps that I fit onto the exhaust headers on my BA, sit about 3/8 of an inch from the engine finning and maybe 1 inch forward of the actual header clamps. I had to loosen the oil lines that are on the engine head that go to the oil radiator and the banjo-fittings were turned at a 45 degree upward angle so those vintage clamps could fit. The banjo fittings and oil-lines go right over that old-style clamp with about a 1/16 inch clearance.
Now, I noticed that your headers are probably the same size as what's on Don's Triton beauty(single-walled as compared to the double-walled that on on BAs) so actually if you were interested in putting a pair of those vintage clamps on your bike, those old stock examples should fit fine without needing any machining at all. Don would probably know for sure, though.
If you do a thread search on this site and type in, "crazy idea about footpegs", that thread has a picture of my 1970 Triumph Streettracker sitting in my front yard, which I think you'll find enjoyable. And I agree with you about the Triumph gas tanks sitting on Street or Flat Tracker. You'll see that my '70 has a stock Bonnie tank on her. I've always thought that they look better than the fibreglass Flattracker tanks that many used or now use on this kind of "Special". I've always thought Bonneville(both Meriden AND Hinckley) and old TR6 Triumph tanks were some of the best looking M/C tanks ever designed, so why replace 'em?!
And as you said...."If they were good enough for Gary Nixon", they're certainly good enough for us!
Cheers,
Dwight
(you probably know, Nixon still races in many vintage races around the country....and he's STILL the fastest old coot out there too)
