[Eddieb]

Thanks to those who have already answered my queries and to all those who may do so in the future.
You can see I've been waiting for a 851/888 section for ages.

Now that I have the bike in NZ I'm discovering there is little to no knowledge off the 888 here. There are a few 851's around but a major duke dealer estimates approx 6 888's were officially imported here, and maybe another 18 privately as I have done over all the variations. There is 1 SP5 in the country, about 4 SP4's a couple of 851 SP3's (888 engined) and the rest Strada's. I know of 2 other 888's here in wellington but have never seen either in the 3.5 years I have lived here.

Most of the 851's were privately imported as well, it seems in the last 5 years or so as the NZ dollar got stronger and prices dropped in europe and japan due to their age.

This means unless it's more of a generic question like the carbon on the valves no one knows about them. It's great if you want to be looked at the local 'Box Hill', crap if you want to know something specific about them.

So again thanks one and all.