I'm there/here Richard, but no idea at all how many miles you get out of a rod!! All my rods, all 21 of them in things from 45 to 70 years old, seem to be whirring around OK and clocking up the miles. Not thinking of changing any of them - but nor of going Drag Racing, to be fair.
Currently eyeing alloy rods and a few other parts in a marque not so renowned for endurance as our BSAs, aka Royal Enfield twin, but even there, they seem to be fine, in alloy, with a ridiculously long stroke of 90mm odd and 70mm bore, 6250rpm available and 50 bhp . . . so they say. Scary. Had it running and it was fun, quick and nicely noisy, but, ahem, a lot of oil everywhere .. . . so it's in bits to see what can be done to render it continent, or at least reasonably so. We think we have breather trouble with Beesas . . . ?! Try an Oilfield - quite capable (apparently) of blowing its primary side into the nearest ditch having ingested petrol-ly fumes through the crankcase breather into the chaincase and exploding . . . a fair few mods are essential, I'm told. In hand.
Thee and I know we can get nearly anything for an A from the various excellent folk who support us, but I have never yet come across anyone quite like my new best friends Hitchcocks, the UK RE people . . . absolutely anything and everything - a lot of it re-imported from your side. If we could all get BSA pistons for 40 pounds a pop with pins and rings in any size from standard to max . . . wouldn't life be nice? A key source of AMAL parts btw for anyone looking, including pre-Monobloc stuff.
Temporary pre-occupation with oily bits from Redditch has not, however, precluded some decent mileage on the Beesas . . . Meteorological Offices various should be sued for issuing false weather forecasts which have led to a damp crotch too often this European summer. But despite the worst of the elements, no BSA has embarrassed me in ages. I was only saying to a mate this afternoon that apart from oil changes and a gear-change return spring, I haven't laid a serious spanner on my scruffy A in gawd knows how long (like a year and a lot of miles), and the same goes for the off-topic B (which is quite simply one of the finest classic machines ever made if you're not in any kind of a hurry).
Soon as the Oilfield is sorted I'll probably be plagued by something terminal in the Small Heath part of the shed, but no matter how hard I look I can't find anything wrong with the darn things. Brilliant adverts for the whole classic movement, especially as they aren't at all smart. Just as well they work unremarkably actually, as the Domestic Management is starting to notice the proliferation of stuff in the shed and wondering whether there's any plan to reduce the stock in some way. I plead necessity, addiction and general insanity.
There's no good answer to an insanity plea, which is why it should always be added to any list of excuses. Can't underline that maniacally enough!