Hi Lou,
Firstly a bit of background, I based my TT2 on a picture i had of a New Zealand international road racer, Robert Holden, who sadly lost his life at the Isle of Man TT races in 1996.
The picture was of his nitro/methanol burning TT2 wheelstanding, showing the underslung rear suspension. ( as a side note one of the best race finishes i have seen with Robert on the TT2, competing at Wanganui street races in NZ, against another top NZ racer Bob Toomey on a GSXR1100, AWESOME.
After aquiring a replica TT2 frame, i put the plan into action.
My design of the rear suspension, obviously using a underslung shock, I welded alloy plates to the swingarm's original shock mount,then machined these to fit machined bearing carriers, supporting an eccentric shaft that partially rotates as the suspension is compressed, thus giving a rising rate.
As stated earlier all the linkage units are machined from 7075 aircraft alloy, needle roller bearings etc.
As for the exhaust system, what with cutting down the crankshafts overall length, i wanted the bike as slim as i could get it. not that easy on a TT2 frame with modern engine(wrong way cyl heads) as the space available is limited for exhausts etc.
So i set upon the lengthy task of fabricating the exhaust, routing it through the frame/engine with the required equal length headers ( got within 15ml of water between front/rear pipes) 44.5mm dia merging to 51mm then to reverse cone megaphones with custom made removable bolt on silencers?( not that quiet!! but acceptable)
It was pretty much 3 years in the making & still have a few more modifications to come.
Regards