"Did the valve clearances on the BMW GS last night" thread in "Motorbike Chat"
Originally Posted by balbas Thanks for the offer. 'S a hell of a way for a carb balance, but I'll give it some thought How ...

Loads about it on the net, its very common to make your own. Hers just one from google. VFRD > Homemade Manometer
I had a twinmax and prefered it to the Morgan Carbtune but Neil at GS Shop said his mercury sticks showed the tmax wasn't as accurate as some would have you believe?

I did the valve clearances twice on my Rockster as it was annoyingly vibey. The first time no noticable difference. So the second time I was really anal about getting it spot on. I used snap on feeler gauges etc. I then balanced my TBs using a Twinmax. The result was exactly what I'd been told it would be - smooth as silk. I lost that annoying vibe that used to numb my fingers with sustained motorway speeds etc.

I found to keep it that way I had to balance the TBs often. Thats the trouble when you get too fussy, you start to notice everythinG!

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Woot... my whole bike cost £600. Just done my clearances, VFR400 NC30 not the easiest engine to work on but simple enough if you follow the manual. Cost me about £24 for new shims and took about 3 hours start to finish.

Get the manual and do it yourself.

Total cost £6.. wasn't happy with the results with the gauges I had- you can see here how far they were out,after doing the TB's with my home made gauge,the vibes dissapeared completely on my 1100RS.

There's a great deal to be said for air cooling, two cylinders, two valve heads and OHV engines. Especially for the home mechanic. I struggle to see the real advantage of OHC/DOHC for anyone that isn't interested in chasing high revs.

Bike's aren't sold on homemechanicability though are they...they're sold on power, size and weight...

For the criminally tightfisted non-mechanic, are there things that can actually damage your bike if you ignore shim / clearance work for as long as possible? Or can I just wait it out till poor running forces me to do it?

I was thinking about ignoring the valve check till the 15k service as they were not done by previous owner at the 8k. (now have 10k on the clocks, saving for the service.. sigh) but I think if ignored long enough and seriously out of spec... piston could smack one of the valves before it closes and trash your engine?

Need to get off my arse and do it my self. Used to do things my self, never the right tools just became a lazy cunt over the years

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Blitz0r'd ZZR1200 Heavyweight Power



HM Government Approved Road Pirate

And pretty colours

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A good question as I have '94 CBR600 that I bought with 34k on the clock last year. It's now approaching 60k and apart from regular oil changes, couple of c&s and tyres, I've done bugger all to it. Still purrs along like a good 'un, power is all where it should be and I've no real inclination to get stuck in and have a look at clearances. (Oh for the days of my big single with simple screw and locknuts!)

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A metaphysical dichotomy has caused this unit to overload and shut down.

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If a valve clearance closes up to 0 then the valve never closes properly and hot exhaust gases leaking past can burn out the seat. New head time or at best a very expensive fix. It would probably take criminal levels of neglect for a modern bike to get that bad though.

this is actually a lot more damaging than the tappity rattly noise associated with loose valve clearances.

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aka 6x6

Yes. It can makes a difference to the way the engine runs and burns fuel. Worse problems can happen - but they are rare.
Yes. It could end up costing you a lot more though.

Who lives where? Well I know where balbas lives, but where are you Rockburner? I can courier it, maybe!

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W.Sussex way.

TBH taking it on a bike might be problematic - I used 3-in-1 oil as the medium and when it gets shaken up badly it takes a day or so to settle down again.

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non quod, sed quomodo

Fair enough.

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I knew a guy who had a NTV 650 as a courier hack. He changed the oil for good semi synth every 8k. He never adjusted the valve clearances. It wasn't rattly either and it had 120k miles on it when he wrote it off!

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