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Relisted the part and it sold to the same person.

No idea what's going on with that one.

I've never had one cancel then I read this post and two hours later I got a sale and a cancel.

Hahaha. Life is weird.

I've had numerous cancellations on parts I got good deals on as a buyer.

I have both a 12 and a 20 ton presses. I usually use my 12 ton. It's nice and square and since the ram is smaller OD and longer it's easier to work around cranks.

That crank isn't terrible. I'd try some emery cloth and Scotch Brite. It doesn't have to be pretty. A lathe helps for sure.

The trick to removing these old case studs is to double nut them and hit them with the impact. They usually come right out. The impact is the key. They won't budge without it.

This thread deserves a sticky. It's a good resource for chain tension issues. Many great places to look that don't necessarily come to mind immediately. At least for me.

My two cents is that I always adjust tension to the tight spot. If the tight spot is egregious, then I try to spot the issue. A sticky link for example. Though eccentric sprockets have been found too. 

I can machine these things in shop and unless im in a hurry I still use Send Cut Send or PCB Way. Materials costs are such that even when I get good deals I can't do it myself as cheap. A good 3/8" end mill is $20. Material another $10. Then an hour to machine. Might as well upload my file and go about life as somebody else makes it.

If the crank is twisted it will spit seals and eventually bearings.

Welcome to the world of subsidized manufacturing. It's much easier to get government subsidies in China to produce items. So the products don't always make sense, or even need to, since it's much easier to turn a profit with even sub par products. The lack of meaningful knobs being case and point.

It's been a while since I have seen a set, but the knobs were indeed just for show. They went as far as adding detents with a spring and ball setup, but the knobs turned indefinitely and had zero bearing on internal function.

There are RFY's that have a shaft adjustable setup that actually works and they come with a really good modern piston. They are hens teeth though. 

Post some pictures so we can commiserate.

It's probably not that bad. Unless the bearing surfaces are heavily rusted/pitted it can almost certainly be saved.

Those ones look nice but the standard RFY is a better option. For starters, the knobs are fake on those clones.

I find it fiddly but not difficult per se. I recently did a old Honda 300ex Odyssey crank that had been cut on, hammered on, and generally was just beat up. On top of that, the crank pin that's available is slightly too short for the crank.

That one got frustrating after a while. Managed to get it to .002" total runout and gave up. Other than that, all of the ones I have played with were pretty simple to get under .001".

That said, the Vito's crank is the way to go. I have two Yamaha cranks and one Vito's crank and by the time I build my Yamaha crank it's not much cheaper than the Vito's. The big cost of having cranks done is shipping them two directions. Vito's solves that.

Be careful with using head temps. They aren't that useful, I have seen Yamaha's run 580F CHT and be fine. It's a target temp based on ambient, and in a flat out run you will always be hotter than putting around.

For racing we always do ambient temp less baseline temp. So if it's 90F out and baseline is 60F, you take the 30F difference and add it to your target Temp. Which makes your 450F a 480F CHT temp.

CHT is a lot more useful in constant state engines like on airplanes. EGT on a motorcycle works great. I have had it on my 350 for a decade.

As for JL's. I spoke with Jim about two months ago. No mention of tariff/shipping stuff at the time, but he did say he builds all his street pipes for the street. As in, they are definitely brought into check somewhat. He didn't want to go into specifics...

The DG mod is a great mod, but its a fair amount of messing around. You can make the pipes significantly lighter too. It was worthwhile on my build.

When I did the stinger mod to the DG's I went for a real mid range design. It doesn't feel as fast as a top end pipe (duh) but around the city it probably is faster. It's a lot easier to ride and you don't have to zing totally out to keep it on the pipe. It doesn't pull to the moon like a good pipe would though. I went with TM28's too, which work great right off idle all the way up but they probably don't help the top end as much as a larger carb.

I have one. It's been apart for some time. I did get a summer out of it.

I'd say no it's not practical in that context. I don't think it's good for 50-60 mph average speeds. The brakes aren't great and it's high strung.

It's a cool little motor. My smallest hone just barely fits. A lot of fun and great around town. Not sure I'd want to daily it in any context.