[Bilbo]

I picked the bike up from Will Burrows on Saturday, and although I have clear instructions about running it in, the bike feels better than ever and more like it should be.

Their report is saddening. For the sake of clarity, I will reproduce it here. It is concise and to the point so there is no need for me to embelish it.

"The machine was brought to Will Burrows Motorcycles with a minor tapping noise from the front cylinder. An engine strip down to crankcase mouth level revealed odd pistons front to rear, minor partial seizure marks on the front bore, minimal seizure marks on the rear bore together with minor witness marks of piston to head contact.

The cylinder barrels were taken to Lancaster Engines where it was discovered that the bore was not perpendicular to the joint faces so a 20 thou re-bore was necessary to correct this.

The engine was reassembled with Wiseco forged pistons at 20 thou oversize. These pistons are produced specifically for 883 to 1200 conversions. Steel cored base gaskets were used and multi-layer steel head gaskets.

The engine was fully assembled, run up and tested; the engine oils and filters were changed following a test drive."

I have yet to hear from the original engine rebuilder, but you can be sure that I will keep this forum well informed of ongoing events.

The upside is that the bike is now the way it should be; Swooping through the leafy lanes up to Coniston yesterday, all the expense and worry simply vanished. It felt great. Now I can start to enjoy it.