And, all the engineers look away now.

Although I had supposedly bought some new barrels off ebay for this ZX10 engine, it seems like it's not happening. No contact from the vendor advising of total cost inc. p&p and I have sent a few polite emails. Fair enough, not going to dwell on it.
Anyway, decided to see if I could rescue the barrels I have. I got some wet and dry paper which is very very fine indeed and had a bit of a go at it. There is some discolouration, but - I think importantly - there are now no rough areas in any of the cylinder bores, non that you can feel anyway. So it seems that all of the nonsense was on the surface and no pitting has occured. No significant pitting anyway.

Here's a before and after pic. Actually, it's an after and before pic.
All opinions, advice most welcome.
Rescued attachment IM000669 before after.JPG

If there is no pitting or any ridges then you should be ok.
Just make sure that you turn it over a bit to get the oil around before you switch on the ignition.
Once started, your exhaust will let you know if any oil is getting by, but better to do a compression test.

Looks good Zil!

Are you planning on re-honing it? What about new rings?

Mike

Cheers chaps.

So far, of the two pistons I have tried back in, they both have an even resistance up and down the bores. That seems a reasonable sign.
A hone and rings also look like decent ideas as well. Any thoughts on the hones that you see for sale, or would you go with a proper engineering shop ?

i've never done any sor tof engine work (don't think i ever will either...) but i'd suggest a re-honing too

We use a drill type hone at work whenever something's getting new rings but the only bike engines I work on are ATV ones which dont rev anywhere near as hard as yours. I think you'll be OK doing it yourself, all you're tying to do is take the glaze off so the new rings have a nice new surface to bed into.
We use it with WD40 or similar to lubricate it, keep the drill speed fairly low & keep the hone moving up & down the bore & never let it spin in one place so you get a cross-hatch effect.
I put a cable tie on the spindle of the hone so it touches the top of the bore when the stones are at the bottom, not so important with a barrel that can be lifted clear of the crankcase but still helps you shoving it too far through & flapping about & mabye breaking a stone off.