Well, I have the timing cam in bits again and the timing chain is definitely not aligned with its driving sprocket at the bottom.
I 've been "fishing" around to try to get the timing chain back onto the driving sprocket at the bottom. Looking down the timing chain tunnel with a bright light it is clearly off the sprocket at the front and loose there, but it is a bit tight at the back - could be jammed between the rear chain guide and whatever.

I will carry on doing a bit more "fishing" but it is possible that this is not going to work out. As Auke says, the next thing will be to take off the left hand crank cover, although I have considered stripping down the engine again to get at the timing chain from above (any comments on that approach??!!)

Some questions arise:

1. It is not clear to me what is behind the left hand cover - as ever the manual is a tad vague - will I get directly to the timing chain and its driving sprocket once the cover is off or are there any other things in there to be removed once the cover is off?

2. Do I have to drain the oil to take off the left crankcase cover? (there is an oil pipe from the tank at the top rear of the cover and it is a bit flexible with an amount of flexy hose back to the oil storage tank (so it looks like it can "stretch" a bit)

Bear with me, I've not done this before either!!

While fishing, as described above, the timing chain looks OK and I have turned the crank with the wrench and the sprocket does not appear to be damaged - no teeth missing etc etc. ( it is easily seen with said bright light, just not so easy to reach out and touch!!)

Dave

ps I would really like to get this bike back on the road before the summer is over!

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Dave