Adjusting valve clearances: how critical?

Just wondering how important is the valve adjustment on this bike, and at what intervals shoud it be done.
I purchased the bike last March and put on 10k kms and now the bike has a total of 40k kms.
I spoke to to previous owner recently who told me he had never done the service.
What say you all?

 

Getting to them is easy. Radiator has one bolt or so, and then pivots out of the way, use a bungi to hold it against the fender. Then its just a question of getting the valve covers off. I would check them if I were you. Flip side mine were done at 30,000 and I checked them at like 70,000 and everything was as it should be.

Good luck anywhooo.

 

Yo! I'm actually in the process of doing this on my old bike. Seems easy enough but I'm new at it. I need to get some feeler gauges tho to make sure the clearances are all correct. The manual has helped a ton.



I think it's worth doing if you plan on keeping and riding the bike a while.

Kinda like a girlfriend. Gotta give em a little attention every now and then or else it'll come back to haunt you!

 

Thanks for the advice folks. I'm going to play it safe and have them checked.

Cheers

 

and how often are people replacing the water pump since you are there?

 

You need to dig in there yourself. Not every shop can be trusted, and not every tech is going to do a good job. At the least, i'd suggest that you do the fairly simple work yourself, like checking the clearances, a nice winter project and easy enough if you have the time and a few tools.

Shops know the VFR setup holds adjustment, so i'd guess a few places do nothing to your valves except charge you for something they don't do.

If you discover any clearance off by .002" or more, THEN you could take it to a shop and pay a pro to do the difficult work of pulling and re-timing the cams.

 

Thanks squirrelman, but I feel better leaving that stuff up to the pros. Besides, I have a solid relationship with my shop and totally trust the tech.
It's also too damn cold in the garage this time of year.lol