Brake caliper lockup

Stripping the brakes on the TLR I bought as crash damaged I noticed something interesting. The spring clip was missing from the pad retaining pin on the left caliper, and the pin had worked its way out of one side of the caliper. When the previous owner braked for a corner the pad slipped forward, bending the retaining pin and locked the front left brake. This corresponds both with the flat spot on the side of the tire, and him saying he lost the front. Part of the damage was to the m/c banjo, releasing all the pressure in the system, and the pads, so no-one suspected a lockup.

For a few years I was concerned about how loose that spring clip was on my calipers, tried bending it 'tight' a few times, and eventually went to proper split pins about 2 years ago. Looks like my concerns may've been right. Might pay to check yours regularly (when you wash it every week :laugh). IIRC the USD forked oil/air cooled Gixxer11's, and older Bandits had split pins instead of spring clips...:O