I've a recently acquired 1970 175HS. While I've restored a number of bikes over the years, and built 3 Cafe Racers, this is both my first Bridgestone and first 2-stroke project. I'll probably need to candle the minds of the membership for a variety of things, but an early one that came up was the connector between the header pipes and mufflers. My bike came with some kind of what appears to be radiator hose held on with hose clamps. This is obviously not stock since the Parts Catalog has a part # for the muffler joint rubber. So, my question is, is this "modification" (what's the British idiom, bodged?) what is typically done and acceptable? Why? Because the stock joint rubber is unobtainable, or doesn't work, or too expensive, or? Or is it preferable to use the stock joint rubber because Richard has a warehouse full of 'em?