Cracked piston?

I am looking at an lt250r and the guy says that "the first day I
got it home, the piston cracked on me. I was told that the cylinder walls were fine so I put a stock piston back in and haven't had trouble since."

How serious of a problem is this? What would cause such a problem? Is this a problem bike? Thanks for any help you can give me :)

Stephanie

[big-guy]

Pistons don't typically just crack, but if the compression is good now, I wouldn't sweat it.

[Scott]

a compression tester will give you a pretty good idea as to what kind of shape it's in.

From my experience, even if a 2 stroke needed bored, piston, rings, that's not a big deal provided the rod and crank bearings were still good and the cylinder was still thick enough to allow for a bore without having to re-sleeve the cylinder. $200-$300 would do a rebuild as long as you're not having to replace the bearongs in the bottom end (requires splitting the case halves) or re-sleeving the cylinder.

If it was blown up, piston shattered, and pieces fell into the bottom end, I'd have to pass unless the price was REALLY cheap.