Carb Belmouths
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With the standard carb belmouths I had already determined that I would need a hole in the bonnet for an air filter or airbox to stick out of. I really didn't want a hole in the bonnet because it looks a bit crap and also more importantly the carbs are not supposed to draw air particularly well with the airflow passing across them, which makes sense if you think how a venturi works.
Anyway it seemed to me that the belmouths were unnecessarily tall and designed around fitting into the stock airbox, which I wasn't using. I also remembered seeing some shorter 'high flow' belmouths for the R1 on the QB Carbon website. Unfortunately they weren't exactly cheap, so I decided to get my originals turned down after speaking to Ray Stringer, as it turns out that this is exactly what they do to their racing R1s.
The inside edge is radiused in order to keep the airflow clean and the overall height of the carbs is reduced by about two inches, which meant that I could use the slimmest of the Pipercross PX600 air-filters, still have an inch of clearancen between belmouth and air-filter and the angle of the air-filter means that there is plenty of breathing room round the filter as it is just touching the side of the bonnet bulge and draws air from the bulge. At some point I will investigate running a fresh air feed from the nosecone through the radiator surround or even perhaps some kind of airbox that seals under the bonnet bulge and draws fresh air from inside the nosecone.