From:
http://ericgorr.com/techarticles/twotopweb.html
Many people have emailed me with questions regarding honing cylinder bores. If you want to buy a hone to deglaze bores or polish off small scratches, then a ball-hone is the best choice.
re: what to look for
You can easily see damage to the plating. When it peels or is 'removed' for whatever reason (like a piston seizure), it's very obviously GONE!
If it's NOT 'gone', then it's probably still ok, wear-wise. The plating isn't usually very thick, so you're not likely to have much of an 'out of round' cylinder with the plate still intact. Certainly if the bike is apart this would be a checking point, though.
EG offers USChrome replates for $175. Langcourt has been reported to be a decent outfit for replating. Note langcourt expressly says they don't want no KIPS stuff...JUST the cylinder.
Let's actually call it like it is here. The guy you bought the bike from is pretty much a maroon if he didn't know the kawi is a plated (or electrofused) bike. While honing can be done to a plated cylinder, what you DON"T want to do is take a stone-fit hone to it. You'll ruin it in the process. (EG notes that in his article, too. Read it!)
Take it apart to check it yourself. It's crucial to have the oem piston OUT of that bike. NOT doing that at rebuild time is asking for disaster. (read fatty's post about his cracked cases and the 220 oem piston).
If YOU put in a wiseco, make sure the piston to cylinder clearance is correct for a forged (wiseco) piston.
LONG before a bike is sleeved, it could be bored and replated to spec.
Keep in mind that boring of a 2-smoke may well change a bunch or port timing issues....and in the case of the kawi, KIPS exhaust port flapper interference issues.
So, honing does NOT require replating. If it was bored, it would be REplated after the bore process.
Don't have anyone replate your cylinder without them having access to the piston you're going to use. Any machinist worth his salt will REFUSE to bore/replate/sleeve or do any other work to a cylinder without having the piston to MATCH it to. Guess that's an imo. I wouldn't deal with a machine shop that was willing to work without the piston(s).