Decided to go for the mitaka pistons in the end as I have heard a few good stories about them, they look good quality and the ring pegs are in exactly the same positions as oem which was my main worry.
Had to spend nearly an hour scraping the old gasket off the cylinder:
Little end bearings looked and felt fine but thought it would be best to replace:
Not really much of a difference between old and new considering one is getting on for 30 years old, new ones installed with plenty of 2 stroke oil:
Rings installed on the new pistons and fitted to the rods:
New RC valve oil seals and e rings fitted:
Cylinder re fitted with new base gaskets, I was quite paranoid that the rings had slipped off the rings pegs so I took the barrel off once or twice to check before finally tightening it all up:
Thats all I managed to get done today, hopefully will get back down there tomorrow to do the top cylinder and make a start on getting the engine back in the bike. I know most will be wincing at the use of non OEM Pistons but if they are good enough for all the KR-1 owners to use with their fragile engines im praying they will be fine for me and the hopefully more robust NSR unit.