Well I just finished this job of less than an hour.
1) Thought it would be nice to inspect the cylinder walls for any sigh of scouring from possibly a bad break in as I didn't drive partial throttle for 500 miles but varied the speeds. Partial throttle will equate to driving in my back yard.
The cylinder walls were as smooth as a baby's butt.
2) Also wanted to see any signs of burning too rich or lean as I did have a small white gob on the scaly black spark plug after 3500 miles.
Piston was slightly black and easily cleaned. I was expecting scaly black deposits or thick soot or indications of burning from the spark plug. None of that was found.
3) The metal gasket looked reusable but it appears there is a round ridge on the gasket that gets compressed creating a seal around the piston when the head bolts are torqued. Since the old gasket was flat from compression, there would be no ridge sealing effect.
IMO, thats a great gasket design if I'm thinking correctly.
Anyway, I may do that again next year or in 2 years as it was quite an easy job and provided a nice quick look into the combustion chamber.
Hard to believe that a 235 lb bike can go 42MPH on that tiny piston.
