A quick tale of success. This is my third VTR;
A silver 97 (written off by a doofus in a van)
A black 99 (I bought it crashed and fixed it up)
And now this yellow 97.
I bought this about two weeks ago. The previous owner explained that he was riding it and it just started to make a horrible knocking noise but no willingness or time to fix it.
I had half a suspicion what was wrong and bought it.

Took it home, turned it over by hand and the noise was apparent - camchain jumping over the intake sprocket on the front cylinder.

Removed the CCT and dismantled it. Spring snapped - no surprises there.

Took the head off to check for valve damage.
Sheared one of the manifold studs removing the exhaust.
All of the exhaust clamps disintegrated when I took a spanner to them.
Head all good though, no visible damage and no leak from the valves when I poured solvent down the ports.

New head gasket, CCT, manifold studs, spark plugs, new coolant, it's all running!
Insured it on my KTM EXC's policy and went to the pub to celebrate.

4 hours to dismantle, a week's wait for the parts, 4 hours to reassemble.
I'm pretty chuffed. This is the first used bike I've owned which looks like it hasn't been dropped at all. I'm chuffed to bits :-)
Thanks for the advice on the forum (all from searching) - I couldn't have done the timing correctly without it.
Cheers
Andy