I changed my oil today (as I do every 2500 miles) and to my horror I noticed some shiny little specs, just 3 or 4 little tiny specs of metal, but this has never happened before, even after the time it overheated and needed a top end rebuild.

What the hell do I do now? Everything SEEMS to be ok, the gears all select as they should, starts every time, no knocking, everything is as it's always been.

First thing DON'T PANIC most engines have small flakes of metal in them even new ones, just treat it like you always do and see what the next service is like, as long as it starts ok and there are no odd noises coming from it you'll probably find it's just normal wear and tear. Honest it's quite normal !!!

As above, I wouldn't worry too much. If you ever seen the metal that sticks to one of those magnetic sump plugs, you'd have a cardiac. Its just normal. Years ago, we used to use flushing oil to wash out any crud before re-filling, but I think that practice is now long dead

Not quite dead, I still use a flush before changing the oil in my bike.....The car? I do't bother

Yeah, as said above don't panic, its normal. Some bikes produce more than others, anyone whos had a early 80s big bore Husky will know what i mean

I've since stopped caring about these, even if there is something wrong I won't know till my next oil change so I'm not gonna worry myself, if it's worse next time then I'll start taking things apart and finding the problem. I'm gonna guess it's from the piston, the engine doesn't have amazing compression due to odd cylinder wear so it's probably from that, or the gearbox maybe since that's getting clunky with age. Ohh well, engines will do as engines do, and making metal shavings is one of those things.