Last summer I was pleased to get hold of an NC35, my first bike and I'm in love... but have managed to smash a conrod through a piston and can't get hold of a replacement...

I've tried to get an OEM piston everywhere (placed an order in Latvia, have trawled through Japanese websites and American spares, breakers yards etc etc). I am on a budget but don't want to give up on my little V4 (at only 11k miles!). I am trying to choose between boring out the cylinders and fitting new pistons - the JE Big bore kit, or buying one of 2 engines on ebay at the moment to cannibalise for a replacement piston.

Really not sure what to do so any help/advice would be appreciated!

Here's a pic of her, I'd like to get the race fairing swapped out for an original coloured tyga set eventually but I do think this is isn't a bad look to keep for the time being!

http://imgur.com/a/uVPvN


Thanks and hopefully I'll be able to stick around!

A proper rebuild would be costly and time consuming. Your best bet is swap in a problem free running engine.

As for re-boring and fitting big-bore JE piston kit (from TTS I presume?), gotta find a shop that knows what they are doing, these liners are notorious for being non-concentric between inner and outer diameters. Any mishap and they might cut right through the liner into the block. Also, JE pistons are about 10% heavier than standard NC35's, not something I'd fancy running at 14000rpm.

Just my 2c. Best of luck.

Yea I think you're right, I had read the JE pistons are heavier and thought this would obvs put more stress on the crankshaft/journal bearings etc. Best option probably is get an engine I can drop in, at least I will have a lot of low mileage spares! All of this is a steep learning curve for me and I didn't think boring would be too risky but does make sense. Do appreciate the help! Cheers!