Looks great to me, I wouldn't go back to stock. I always think if you'd owned this from new, you would have fitted those brakes in 1997, if not 96. So why not do it now?
Speaking of which, I have a 96 Explosif and it has a braze-on rear cable stop as well as the clamp-on canti cable guide. My serial number is H6A3 2264. The H6 means it was built in whatever factory in 1996, so in other words it was built for the second half of the 1996 model year - early 96 Explosifs would have been built in 1995 and carry H5 serial numbers. My guess is that the early bikes in the 96 model year had no V-brake stop and the later ones did, as Vs were coming in right around then. So I'd guess your frame has an H5 serial number, am I right?
