My next service is due at 16000 miles so just wondering how many people out there actually had the valve clearance check done and was it really necessary as they were out of adjustment?
Can't remember the last time we had to adjust the clearances on a Honda, however I have mine checked when needed.
On the new RRC with the 12m/8k intervals you are effectively stripping back to inspect at 2 years old!!!!! I asked at the service desk, and was told if mileage low then most likely they'll do an audible inspection? Too damn right, I'm not having it stripped down at 5k miles.
I paid a fortune for mine to be checked and found out this year that my head has never had a spanner on them, this is a common thing these days, garages charge and don't even check as they don't very often need doing!
Have heard this about a lot of bike shops. They charge hundreds for a full job and sometimes can't even be bothered to do an audible. Valve clearances nowadays get smaller and quieter. I did my mate's FZ1 and ordered 7 Yamaha shims at £7 each as the clearances were below tolerance and we wanted them at optimum, to avoid having to do it again. The local Yamaha main dealer in Sidcup actually said, "we don't have any in stock as we NEVER have to change em" YEAH RIGHT !
evry time i have gone to a garage about the valves they have always said to do them on the next valve service
I check and photograph the bike half way through the check to include it with the service history for my customers to remove ANY doubt that they were done! I don't want ANY of my customers wondering IF they were done! On average 20% of blades I check need adjustment on one or more shims same for GSXRs and many other bikes I do, WR's etc again around 20% of them and so on. R1s need a good look over and again often need correction UNLIKE what dealers say, from time to time I run low on shims and USED to ask local dealers for them BUT they NEVER have any in stock, funny as I have around 300 shims in stock!!! Of all sizes! Hay Ho...lol Oh and by the way when you change out a shim you keep the old one so over time you end up with hundreds! Even if they are all too thick!
Mine were done at 12K miles, got the dealer to throw it in when I got the Blade, whether they actually did anything I don't know, got the stamp in the book though.
Thanks Arthur - until your post I had convinced myself that the check was unnecessary now I'm not so sure. How much of the bike has to come apart to reach the cams and is it possible to hear a valve that needs adjustment like you could with tappets out of adjustment. Ta - Steve
As part of the service the air box has to be opened, it's not a huge amount of work to carry on and remove the rest of the air box to access the rocker cover, (and extra couple of hours to open and check) sadly the saying "a tappy tappet is a happy tappet" is very true as they get quiet when the clearances close up as the valve wares into the seat so no you can't hear a closed up valve gap..
As Arthur says he takes a pic in the middle I don't think it would be unreasonable to ask your garage to take a pic of yours with your name on a bit of paper. It will take them 10secs and if they make a fuss of it then are they actually got any intention of checking?
Arthur...have you any info on track bikes against pure road bikes when it comes to need for adjustment? My experiences have been that in normal road use, the clearances stay OK, but have seen the need for re shimming on bikes used extensively on track. The other thought is, I wonder if some come out of the factory either close to limit or actually wrong?
As I say mate most of the bikes I check are on spec or very close (problem is unless you check you'll never know), tbh the likes of Honda seem to be BANG on what they ask for Ive never seen them far off from the spec sheets.. The accuracy of the Japs is extraordinary! Road v track I'd say is down to hours, miles, type of rider/use, service history etc so hard for me to say if one is more in need of checks than another, the RC8 I looked after years ago needed checking after each race (BSB support race) and was corrected prob each 3rd race, we ran it wide as was found it made more consistent power with wider gaps...but thats KTM! The track bikes I see tend to be no worse off than the road bikes I service valve wise imo. One thing I will add is most track riders stick to regular oil changes and clean oil is key imo in regards to engine ware!
