Thanks (again) Pleiades. That's put my mind at ease and I appreciate the help

Hmmm, read this post and wonder if i did anything wrong.

mine also does popping and banging. But the AIS is blocked of. The bike has been on the tuned on the dyno. So i presume it's not too rich. What can cause the bangs?
Leak somewhere?

The most common cause of popping and banging in the exhaust system (other than from the AIS) are indeed leaks. The closer an exhaust leak is to the cylinder head, the more likely air is going to going to be drawn in on the overrun and cause detonation of unburnt fuel. I would suspect poor gasket sealing at the downpipe to cylinder head joint to be the area to look into first.

Incorrect valve adjustment/timing is a far less common cause of back-firing and unlikely if things are running fine otherwise; it maybe worth checking the valve clearances if it's bothering you?

Well, the valves shouldn't be the issue. I checked the clearance just last year/a few thousand KMs back.

Myself, i never touched the headers. I can check the bolts. And maybe i can use a thin sheet of paper to see if there's leaking gas when i pull the throttle

thanks!

The gaskets can and do quite often rot away out of sight due to front wheel spray, low or high guard, it matters not which (unless you have a fender extender of mud flap fitted). The manifold joint (Y-pipe) is close enough to draw air in two. The two gaskets on the front where the headers enter really need replacing if disturbed, there hard to seal a second time. So if you bike’s had an aftermarket shock fitted these have been disturbed in the past and maybe not replaced? Often you have to loosen the headers at the ports too to get some waggle room (I did), so the port gaskets may have been unsettled too in the past.