labour of love.

[Zamo]

hehehehe
it would be like whinging to a brick wall i reckon.

[Maty10]

Is that all 16 have to be checked or all 16 have to be changed,because if it the latter thats bullshit.Most modern bikes these days will do 50,000 kays easily without the valves going out of adjustment.

Mine needed 9 changed at 36ks, and none at 48ks both of which I checked myself. They should have been done at 12 and 24 at PS, but judging by that trend I'd say they weren't!

[rocketrod]

Ok maybe i should have said,get them done at first scedule,which is about 12 thou for most bikes i think,that is the time they will bed in,but after that its all good.My VFR i had done once in 150,000 kays and most guys in the busa club have theirs checked and most never need changing even up to 100,000 kays.
I remember Don Stafford telling me when they used to race the FZ750 superbikes,that they would set the shims after the intial run in and never need to readjust them after a whole years racing.So what would 12 months racing equate to on the road?

[Gosling1]

.....So what would 12 months racing equate to on the road?

not that much really.........6 rounds of racing ( on average) at a 4km track .........

1 day practice maybe 20 or 30 laps *tops* plus 1 days racing of 4 legs at 6 laps per leg, plus 1 x 10 lap *feature* race

= 64 laps over a weekend = 256km. ( approx - warm-up and sighting laps not included )

Over 6 rounds per year = approx 1600km......maybe add a National meeting, and State titles, and you could stretch this out to 2000km......

which in road terms is SFA. Of course you are on the hammer the whole time you are racing, but the reality is that a track-bike is serviced and maintained a *whole* lot better than most road-bikes, so it balances itself out.........it doesn't surprise me at all that the shims didn't need touching on the FZ750's........I bet this was when 'The Colonel' used to race them too eh ?? one of the best racers I ever saw in action....

[BladeBoy]

yeah i gotta admit i wasnt to impressed,
bike came back filthy,
some oil leaked out of the gasket and was all over the radiator and headers.
greasy finger marks all ova and it was out in the rain on fri arvo.
no respect.

Don't you just hate that, solution, go into their store and smear grease and shit over some of their stock i.e. some of their fabric jackets

[Duane]

yeah i gotta admit i wasnt to impressed,
bike came back filthy,
some oil leaked out of the gasket and was all over the radiator and headers.
greasy finger marks all ova and it was out in the rain on fri arvo.
no respect.

Don't you just hate that, solution, go into their store and smear grease and shit over some of their stock i.e. some of their fabric jackets

OR... buy a honda and you wont give a shit what they do to it, It can only make it better!!!

[BladeBoy]

yeah i gotta admit i wasnt to impressed,
bike came back filthy,
some oil leaked out of the gasket and was all over the radiator and headers.
greasy finger marks all ova and it was out in the rain on fri arvo.
no respect.

Don't you just hate that, solution, go into their store and smear grease and shit over some of their stock i.e. some of their fabric jackets

OR... buy a honda and you wont give a shit what they do to it, It can only make it better!!!

When was the last time I picked on you

[leadbelly]

I did the valves clearances on my 02 ZX9 back in February at 24,000km - in my case all the inlets went down 1 shim size and the exhausts went down 2 sizes. I was able to swap across 5 shims between valves and I went into Team Moto who swapped out 4 shims for me.

In fact Team Moto Parramatta had a very poor selection of sizes - which makes me suspicious - using Kwaka spares - it would turn most major services for them into a minimum 2 day job. At best, I reckon most bike shops lift the cam cover, check that there's detectable clearance on each valve, then slap it back together until next time. I'm pretty sure that this job was never done properly at the 12,000km service for the first owner of my bike - Inskip Motorcycles had marked the Outside of the cambox with the date, but I think that was as far as they went.

The rest of the shims I got from Precision Shims in Melbourne at about half Kawasaki's price (see http://www.precisionshims.com.au) - they were mailed up overnight - and if you are capable of measuring that accurately with feeler gauges they can offer much finer increments in their 7.5mm dia shims than Kawasaki offers.

There are quite a few tricks to making the job a bit easier/ less risk of stuffing up your cam timing - like painting the cam chain pins adjacent to the cam sprocket timing marks, only removing 1 cam at a time and locking the chain (using the tensioner extended) prior to tightening down the cam caps. You'll need a micrometer, good set of feeler gauges, a good low range torque wrench (optional if you've really got the touch) and you'll want to balance the carbs too - that's about $200 bucks worth of tools at a minimum.

As Rossi says, it's a fiddly job and if you stuff up you could end up with a real mess - like no power, overheating, stripped threads, bent valves, blown pistons or worse!

If you don't want to do your own spannerwork - the best alternative is to use a reputable independent mechanic. I hear that some of the central coast boys use an ace mechanic at one of the bike wreckers up there.

In Blacktown, which is a bit closer to Minchinbury, there's a bloke called Rick Pobjoy (9671 2240) who has built a lot of race motors and has a very good reputation, although I haven't had any work done by him, I know a few who have. He'll probably charge close to bike shop rates, but you'll know the job has been done properly and your bike will run better than it ever has done. Peace of Mind is worth a fair bit.

[Zamo]

Blacktown will be good for me,lot closer for me then parra.

i will definately look that guy up it sounds pretty promising.

[Gosling1]

.......In Blacktown, which is a bit closer to Minchinbury, there's a bloke called Rick Pobjoy (9671 2240) who has built a lot of race motors and has a very good reputation, although I haven't had any work done by him, I know a few who have. He'll probably charge close to bike shop rates, but you'll know the job has been done properly and your bike will run better than it ever has done. Peace of Mind is worth a fair bit.

He is a legend tuner, been around for *years* - if he is working on your bike, the job will be done properly......