“That that does not kill us makes us stronger “ evidently he never had a car run over him when he was riding a motorcycle. If it doesn’t kill you, it just makes you suffer longer. Hey maybe I’m one of them philosophers.🤪

Piston and rings will be installed on connecting rod first. Then cylinder (jug) is installed onto piston with rings compressed using only your hands, no tool needed.

Yes you can rebuild top end without pulling motor. Cylinder and new piston should be brought to a machine shop that can bore small cylinders. The vent line that goes into air box will have a small foam filter at the end.

It's normal for vents to push a little air out, but not really with much pressure if you just put your finger over it for a few seconds. If it starts to build up pressure you can feel firmly almost straight away, well that's a bit of a bad sign. It can mean worn rings. If the vent isn't sending out a steady high flow, or pressure then it's probably not the problem. Check the colour of the smoke, and see if it lingers in still air.. See whether it smells like burnt oil, or evaporated oil.. As for the vent hose, it's pretty common for the main vent hose to go up the front of the bike, up high, and then often turn around and come a little down in height again.It gets the end of the pipe as high as it can because that lets it go through deeper water, and the lowered bit so dirt or splashed water doesn't just go down the hose. That main vent hose often has a branch off it down near the engine and that branch goes to the air-box.When it gets to the air-box it has some restriction, or, there is a pushed in restriction in the hose. The idea is that if you go into deep water, and the crankcases are cooling and the air will get sucked in as it cools, well, if you have a small restricted inlet for air, that water won't get sucked down the main hose. Air from the air-box will get sucked into the crankcase instead. The restricted air comes from the air-box, the last thing that's going to get flooded before the engine stops.. Oh, and your compression figures sounded fine to me..

Glad you got it. The speed you pull/press the lever at makes a difference to how well they bleed sometimes. slowish steady presses mostly seem to work best to start, then once you have some pressure, pump it fast till it builds up best pressure possible, and holding the lever hard open the bleeder fast.. Repeat that latter process closing the bleeder off till you have good pressure, then open the bleeder fast.. It always works.