Can anyone tell me what the strange plumbling is that sits on top of the engine. Is it ok to remove it? I'm thinking of blanking it all off with aplate under the covere on each side.
Any observations??

If you're talking about ontop of the rocker cover then yes, remove the pipes and blank off underneath (I just araldited 4 stainless bolts down the holes).

Mines got what looks like reed valves off a 2 stroke. What's that all about??

Its an air intake for the exhaust valves, when the the throttle is open the the vacume valve (connecting the 2 pipes together) lets air in to allow unburnt fuel to burn off, when you back off the throttle the vacume valve closes (to stop the fuel burning/exploding in the exhaust), its all something to do with the emmissions on bikes. There are 3 options, leave as is, block of the holes (which you will need to do to get thr lamda sensor working correctly for the emmisions test) or remove the vacume valve so you get lots of popping and banging on overrun (as i have, but unless you put an air filter on it, you get a lot of mechanical noise coming from the it)

This is what i have done:-

funny pipes

[Edited on 11/8/03 by MK9R]