Doesnt make any sense to me either, but then nor does a lot of home builds. Look at Comfy sofa and his SM?! He could have bought one for probably way less than he soends overall. But if it floats his boat, who are we to criticise
noods me old pal, It's diminished returns, but its your money and your bike. Unless you're looking at Titanium rods there won't be a huge weight saving (vs. what you'll spend) say with carillo or Arrows, but you will get strength over the stock OEM rods. As others have said a set of Arrows or Pankl titanium rods will set you back big moneys. Pistons are a little different, you get much more tangible benefit for your pound, Arias, JE and DP will all offer a high compression piston, and the likes of Arias will do a custom made piston for you if weight is really what you want. Take a step back and write down for your own direction "what am I trying to achieve?" - it helps you focus and not throw your money away. If its serious weight dumping you're trying to achieve, the money you're looking to dump into pistons and a teardown / rebuild will be better spent on some magnesium rims and lightweight/ti exhaust as you instantly dump kg rather than grams. If however you're chasing the lightest engines around then fill yer boots, don't listen to this lot - they are speaking sense, but its your money and your bike. But with any mod work, just keep focus on what you're trying to achieve otherwise your pocket will empty very quickly. we've all been there at the "oh well whilst its all apart..." stage!
Talk to CJS in bristol or Ducati Kaemna in Germany, they have both done lots of 2 valve head porting work with great effect and will tell you whats best bang for the buck, its easy to let a engine build run away with you as sev says the whilts I'm in there' mentality takes hold and you can easily empty your bank account for minimal gains ti conrods and hi comp pistons are probabaly overkill on a small 2v imho (unless you are loaded) , crank balance, lighted fly wheel and a bit of head porting (prob with new valve guides as the stock ones are shit) an ecu remap is likely the best outcome for moderate money. using as many OEM parts also make service cheaper and easier if it a labour of love and you can afford it then the kaemna will lighten all sorts of engine innards for you as well as your wallet
I sourced all my parts through CJS and Louigi Moto but it was for a desmoquattro engine. They do know what works in most engines though. I've tuned the life out of a 996 and can say I love my very special special. But a bigger engine would've got better numbers for a lot less money overall. I only went my route because slowly adding to bike I could afford, where a larger one off payment to replace the engine or whole bike was not an option.
