Anyone ever owned one?

It is a rather attractive little thing, but I believe they have a reputation for slightly fragile big ends... My wife bought one cheap, & when we got it started it sounded like somebody had thrown a box of spanners..

ah the cm200 (if I’m not mistaken) many years ago a good mate of mine had one of these and I ended up knowing it very well. Rob (who owned it) is possibly the most mechanically inept person I’v ever met, dont get me wrong he’s a great guy and a good mate, but he needs to be kept away from from the box of spanners for safety reasons. so the upshot is every time he had a problem (usually minor) he would bring to me then ask to borrow tools to fix it and go about it in such a way that I would say come here I’ll do it (theres method to his madness). the bike itself seemed pretty strong it put up with an awful lot of abuse for far too long and part of its plus side was its size (small) and simplicity (not much to go wrong) the downside for me at 6’1” was the riding position, you know when you fit a new head to a hammer shaft and you bang the shaft on the ground to let the head drop on? well thats what riding one of these did to my spine, for my body there just was’nt any support from the pegs or the bars.
on the engine front I’v never heard of them being weak at the bottom end, but I have heard tales (how true I dont know) of these engines doing 96000 miles and then only needing rings and cam chain, I suppose its the old story of how you look after them.