Rich you are absolutely correct. The bottom end condition is unknown (previous owner did not know history and never attempted to start it) and I did have the engine completely out of the bike. But there were 2 things working against me - time and money.

My next track day is 9/12. Between then and now there's one weekend and that's a holiday. So I had one weekend and less than two weeks of evenings (we'll be away for the holiday) to put the whole thing back together and I still need to remove the forks and install new seals. I didn't want to be scrambling to make the deadline and who knows what else will pop up in the meantime. Also, I had some but not all of the gaskets and seals needed to do a bottom end rebuild. Yes, I do have a 6000 km crank in perfect shape but see below. So I checked what I could, made sure it was all clean, and will have to hope for the best till I can do a proper rebuild. One good thing is that it appears somebody has been in there at least once so hopefully it wasn't too long ago and with any luck they knew what they were doing.

Second issue - instead of buying a total piece of junk and having money left over, I basically spent all I could and then some to get a nicer start at this project. I wanted a 21, and this one was very close to home and complete. Considering that I know of 3 bikes in my entire state and I now own 2 of them I think that's pretty much the best option I could have.

Without extra money to buy the rest of the stuff I needed and combined with the time factor, I decided I had nothing to lose by putting the engine back together with good top ends and hoping it's ok. If it "seems" ok, I'll flog it on the street as much as I can for a test and then take it to the track. After 9/12 there's only 1 more day in early October and then we're done for the winter. That's when I can do a complete engine refresh and put some extra parts on the shelf and come out of the gate next year being prepared like we know I should be now.

Hey, it's all for fun anyway so if it scatters like last time all I can do is smile and rebuild it again, right? As long as I know the SP is safe in the garage instead of on the track I'll be happy.

Craig