Appreciating the NT.

[Coyote Chris]

over 60 years, there have been lots of bikes I have appreciated for their ease of maintenance.
The NT, for its vintage, was actually a pretty easy bike to maintain.
Now I am faced with the horror of doing the 15,000 mi maintenance on the V strom.
4 Sparking plugs, none of which are easy to get to. To get the tank to at least lift up to get to one/two plugs and the air cleaner, 5 or so panels have to be removed.
I will watch vids and take careful notes. The owners manual has the proceedure and the maintenance manual has more info and there are youtube vids of various quality.
And of course the forum. I will not be using this bike for more touring this year so I will order the coolant, plugs and air cleaner....
There is a guy called "Mr Vstrom" on youtube who looks like he knows what he is doing. He shows how you can use a spark plug socket with TWO swivel joints, put together in just the right way, to reach the top plug on cyl. # 1. After loosening the radiator bolt and using bungi cords and bubble rap to protect it. I feel that if I remove the radiator hose, I will get an added advantage, since I am going to replace the coolant anyway.
Now I am scared on why Triump wants $1800 to set the valves. Not gonna set the valves on the V strom. Ingnorance is bliss. It was kind of fun on screw type adjuster bikes to keep track of valves and see how they were going. Shims arent fun.

 

[ARKNT]

My 650 Versys is just about due for valve check/shim adjustment. I'm still planning on doing it pretty soon but I'll wait for the temperature and garage to get cooler before attempting that.
Yes, the NT worked out to be a good ride.

Arknt

 

[Coyote Chris]

My 650 Versys is just about due for valve check/shim adjustment. I'm still planning on doing it pretty soon but I'll wait for the temperature and garage to get cooler before attempting that.
Yes, the NT worked out to be a good ride.

Arknt

Watched a youtube vid on a UK person doing their bike, a 650 versys. As expected, there is quite a bit of corrosion from the sea air......He uses a haines manual. I assume he is doing it at 24,000 mi.
He isnt specific as I would like but it LOOKS like he finds one exaust valve that is .006 instead of .008. Not a huge surprise. Tolerance is 8-12.
If it were me, I would set the valve to 10.
If he is going to keep the bike to say 35-40 k miles, then it is probably worth the day this would take to do. Of course, we dont know what that valve was set at at the factory. Or what the readings were after 100 miles of driving.
I wonder what the shop would charge? $1,000 to $1300?
I have about 16,000 and plan to keep the bike say another 8,000 miles MAX. I suspect that if this guy rode his bike with the one exhaust valve at .006, nothing bad would happen for the next 8,000 miles....easy. But in reality, probably 24,k more and no burned valve.
My 2017 bike now is worth maybe $4,000 or less in this market. In two or three years, maybe 2,000-3000.
Could I have a .006 exhaust valve? Sure. Could my 2014 Yamaha FJR with 39,000 on it have one also? Sure. I couldnt even get the dealer of Triumps to give me $1,000 for it. My son has been trying to hawk it for $3,000. No takers.

I still think FOR ME and the milage I put on any given bike, (3 right now) its not worth doing.
If my 2004 Honda CRV with 160k on it breaks significantly, it gets donated.
Same for FJR.
If I wasnt up to my ass in aligators and had Chuck's garage, and didnt have alot of money, I would consider it as a passtime.
I think they use shims to generate income for dealers, and to cheepen manufacture. My Concours C10 had a redline of 10,500. It worked just fine with screw adjusters.
Cars with shims have no check interval for the most part.
At 77 years old, I dont think I will see a burned valve
Please send me a PM and let me know what you find.

 

[Frosty]

...
Now I am scared on why Triump wants $1800 to set the valves. Not gonna set the valves on the V strom. Ingnorance is bliss. It was kind of fun on screw type adjuster bikes to keep track of valves and see how they were going. Shims arent fun.

Have you checked to see what Honda wants to set your VFR Valves. I don't think that you have to remove the throttle body/injector assembly ... but tank, air cleaner assbly, radiator(s). Mine was pretty much apart when I checked mine. Also it was not VTEC.

 

[Chucksklrst]

Just for info sake, Do with what you want with it. My three V-Stroms, 2009, 20013, 2014, when I did the valve checks at 15k all were in spec. Also the 09 and the 14, I checked at 30 K and they were still in spec. Coming up to do the 30K on my 13 here soon. My 2014 FJR valve checks at 25k, 50k, all were still in spec. Exhausts were on the tight side of spec, but had not moved. I anticipate having to adjust those at the 75k interval if I have the bike that long. I now have 66k miles in the FJR. When my NT1100 comes up for a valve check the shop is going to do it, as it has shim under bucket for exhaust and tappets for intake valves. To replace exhaust shims one must remove the intake tappet assy. crazy.

 

[Coyote Chris]

Have you checked to see what Honda wants to set your VFR Valves. I don't think that you have to remove the throttle body/injector assembly ... but tank, air cleaner assbly, radiator(s). Mine was pretty much apart when I checked mine. Also it was not VTEC.

I am laughing cause Frosty and I have talked about this ..he is setting me up like a light plane landing in a runway full of helicoptor rotor wash.
The problem with the VFR VTEC is that there are four valve per cylinder and two of them are VTEC. They stay closed till roughly 5800 rpm.
The problem is how does one "Fool" the engine into thinking the valves are in operational mode when it isnt running? One installs a little Honda button in each special vtec bucket
1. Soooo. One takes out the cams, takes out the VTEC buckets, put in the fooler button, puts them back, puts the cams back and of course the cam chain tensioners. Then one can measure the clearances. The toleraces are very close on the non vtec buckets.....plus or minus .001 of an inch. For Vtec, they are plus or minus .003. After recording clearances, one rips down the engione, one puts in new shims, buttons it up again, rechecks things, tears down things, removes the fooler plugs, buttons things up again, and rechecks the clearances.
The vid says its not hard to spend $400 on fooler plugs and new shims. I suspect this is probably about a $2,000 job at the dealer. The cams have to come out a minimum of three times. I think they want you to do this every 16k.

Sorry.....I am going to check with my forum, but Spending an additional $6,000 to keep up the bike for 33,000 is nuts. The VTEC check on my Honda CRV at 100,000 was very reasonabley priced.
Right now, the bike is worth maybe $6,000 in today's market. I think I paid 8.

 

[Coyote Chris]

Just for info sake, Do with what you want with it. My three V-Stroms, 2009, 20013, 2014, when I did the valve checks at 15k all were in spec. Also the 09 and the 14, I checked at 30 K and they were still in spec. Coming up to do the 30K on my 13 here soon. My 2014 FJR valve checks at 25k, 50k, all were still in spec. Exhausts were on the tight side of spec, but had not moved. I anticipate having to adjust those at the 75k interval if I have the bike that long. I now have 66k miles in the FJR. When my NT1100 comes up for a valve check the shop is going to do it, as to have shim under bucket for exhaust and tappets for intake valves. To replace exhaust shims one must remove the tappet assy. crazy.

Thanks! Appreciate it. As I have said, at 77 years old, my priorities have changed. I worry about cancer, dementia, end of life, and tomorrow when the winds could gust to 40 mph and there are more uncaught arsonists and looters about....If any of my bikes burn a valve, oh
well. I grab another bike for a tour like when my NT failed me and buy another bike and farkle it up. I probably ride each bike less than 3,000 miles a year....how long am I gonna live? Personally, the Kawasaki Concours is a 1000 cc bike with twin cams and forked valve rockers with screw adjusters. It was produced for 21 years. Its red line was 10,500 RPM. Whats wrong with that? It was actually kind of fun to set the valves and record them and see how they changed over the life of the bike, as the NT was.