valves adjustments

[Marco S Hyman <marc@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have an old R69S which is dependent upon me for all maintenance.   I
enjoy working on that old, simple bike.   That joy hasn't transferred to
my R1150RT, though.  It gets ridden to the dealer every 6K.  I think
part of the reason was that I didn't like the hassle of removing the
plastic on the RT to get at anything.

I had to remove the plastic (and tank) to re-route some audio and
radar detector cables as I'd decided I wanted them on the left side
of the handlebars, not the right.  As long as the plastic was off, I
thought, why not tweak valves and throttle bodies?  I was curious to
see if it would make a difference, even though the bike was serviced
about a 1200 miles ago.

While the bike was open I checked the air filter.  I pulled 2-3 cc
of small gravel bits out of the air cleaner housing, all on the safe
side of the filter.  Wow.

Anyway, I spent about 30-45 minutes per side getting each pair of
valves as close to matching as my fingers can feel.   I then rode
the bike a bit to help warm it up.  Back in the driveway I hooked
a twin-max to the throttle bodies and let the bike idle a few minutes
until 5 bars showed on the temp guage.  Some minor adjustments to the
air bypass screws got the idle balanced at the appropriate RPM.
The balance held at RPM; no further adjustments were needed.

It makes a difference.   Not a lot, but noticeable.   Giving that level
of care to valve adjustments is not something I'd be willing to pay my
dealer to do at $75/hr or whatever he's charging these days.  It is,
however, well worth doing myself.  I've just got to get over my
reluctance to pull the left side plastic panel.   Maybe I'll make
that my New Year Resolution.

// marc

------------------------------