2001 Srx 700

My buddy has a '01 w/ 24,000 klicks on it. He's never had it apart (until last week) as the sled always ran good. Well on the 2nd last day of our trip, the ring on the mag side piston broke. Looking thru the plug hole the top of the piston looked pretty ugly & a good portion of the ring was laying there.

Have any of you owned a SRX w/ this motor & put a huge amount of miles on it? IMO, he should've spent some money a couple of years ago & replaced the pistons & rings as these parts on a 2 stroke aren't indestructable.

Any comments when he should've done this out of my curiousity?

He's thinking of getting a new sled for next winter & he's got 2 choices, try to sell it as is (not a good selling point) or spending money that would've gone towards a new sled on this 1 which he figures he won't get much for because of it's age & kilometres.