Dymag aluminium wheels, Racefit pipe, race Keihin carbs, K Tech suspension, John Sims frame, Rupe’s Rewires loom. Wow

Michael Rutter’s Classic TT XR69

I don’t often get the chance to work on a bike this awesome. It’s a Classic TT racer using a Bandit engine and John Sim frame, which takes the original 1980s XR69 idea and pushes it to the outer limit.

An old mate from Performance Bikes, Johnny MacAvoy, is part of Michael Rutter’s team. He says they built the original loom in the van on the way up to the Isle of Man! Perhaps unsurprisingly, their 2023 Classic TT was marred by electrical gremlins. So Johnny decided the bike needed a fresh start.

I absolutely loved working on such a fantastic machine, where reliability is so important. The loom itself is quite straightforward, so most of the work is around making the loom robust, and easy for mechanics to deal with under pressure.

I decided that meant making a front and back half, with an easy-break join behind the carbs in the form of a Deutsch DT connector. So if they need to, the team can remove the clocks, the engine or the back end without disturbing anything else.

As it’s a race loom I only used crimped splices, and encased the whole thing in Hilltop PVC sleeve. If you are patient you can do away with wrapping entirely, which suits some applications. Including, I hope, TT racing.

The bike’s oddest feature is the three lithium batteries, one of which is a plug-in auxiliary. The team are running total loss ignition, and need enough power for the four-lap race, plus turning the starter motor after the mid-race fuel stop. There are so many arguments about what might be the best solution. I decided 110amp battery cable would start the engine more quickly, and retain enough energy to make sparks the rest of the time. Fingers crossed it’s the right approach.

Watch Michael Rutter ride this gorgeous XR at the 2024 Classic TT.