GSF 2005
So I went ahead and decided to 'service' the bike myself.

At exactly 4000 miles, I decided to do as much as I could to save some cash, instead of taking the bike to the stealership.

So I changed the oil, replaced oil filter, checked for leaks, replaced air filter (K&vn or something), tighten as many bolts and nuts I could find (bought a toolbox with all kinds of wrenches), checked chain slack, cleaned chain twice, lubbed chain, checked tires, checked brake fluids, adjusted idle, checked battery charge and volts (bought a multimeter) and washed the bike. All of this over 2 days (1st time ever)  :mrgreen:

Now the engine sounds very masculine, and it's very very responsive, but I wonder... did I miss anything? if I had taken the bike to the stealership, would they had done something else of importance? is my bike going to break apart while im riding?  :dunno:

http://www.gstwin.com/every4000miles.htm

You need to do the valves.
The suggested interval is 4,000 miles which sucks.
They might go 6,000 miles but based on what I get at 6,000 miles
there is at least one that is way off.

I don't know if this will work with our bikes, but if you change the oil more frequently you might be able to extend the time between valve adjustments. I did this with my 250 air-cooled single, which had 4 shim-over-bucket valves and a manufacturer's suggested valve adjustment interval of every 3,150 miles. What I did was change the oil every 1,500 miles and was able to only have to do valve adjutments every 7,500 miles.

Valves? what valves...

mmm, the owner's manual mentions 'fuel valve' but that's about it. In the mantenance chart is says I should 'tighten the valve clearance' but it doesn't show the procedure.

is this info valid for a '05 GSF?
http://www.gstwin.com/adjust_valves.htm

or where can I buy a manual for a 2005 gs500f motorcycle?  :dunno:


after looking at the 'adjust valves' page, I realize I must remove the tank again!  :x

Quote from: subcValves? what valves...
is this info valid for a '05 GSF?
http://www.gstwin.com/adjust_valves.htm

That's the valves.  Should be same procedure.

What are some estimates that should be a reasonable price to adjust valves??
I am too busy to do that. Knowing me it would take all day. I think I am just going to take it in.

on averge a stealer ship charges about $800 because of the labor involved [given my stealership charges $80/hr] it might be less if you already have the tank off/body work off and carbs off and are able to tote the bike to the stealership....another reason why stealerships charge so much is because it is a pain in the butt. There is no room to manuever tools around and so forth...the $800 is also including parts for the shims if you would happen to need them....

The valves are in the cyl. head. [top portion of the motor] see that big grey cover on top??? ya...right under there are the valves.

Suzuki recomends valves every 4000 miles?? not sure on that one but I would think it would be longer.....Yamaha recomends every 15,000 miles on their bikes ....more oil changes.....hummm that's a stretch for valve clearance life but I can see where your comming from....more oil changes have better effect on the motor than valve life tho...less crud in the bottom of the pan is always good and less break down of synthetics.....ya change the oil is easy cheap and extends engine life. when I bought my car the oil was probably like 5years old and "stuff"...long story made shot is that I ran it up and down the block a few times and then changed the oil...ran it up and down the same block and it was a different machine. Given the night and day differences of the oil i'm not suprised.

Sorry to write a book here but did you put in new spark plugs? that's a normal short mileage tune up as well as installing a fuel filter. What is the part #er of the K&N filter? is it one of those round cone drop in filters? if it is then ya that alone could make the bike hustle a little more down the road....pull the spark plugs and report back on their color....

+2 on changing the spark plugs; very inexpensive.

On our GS'es, we're dealing with late '70's technology and shim-over-bucket design. The reason why Yamaha and some of the other manufacturer's say 15,000 miles (Suzuki DRZ400), it because it's on their more modern motorcycles (26,000 miles for Yamaha's YZF600, R6 and R1), with shim-under-bucket design!

I think they estimate 2 1/2 hours.  I paid $190 a few weeks ago.
Just don't have the time to do it myself.

Just to make things a little more clear, I'm pretty sure Jace009gs is talking about adjusting the valves while mp183 is talking about checking them. Of course, if they're out of spec and your having a stealer do it anyhow you might as well have them fix it, just figure out how much its gonna cost before rather than after. Personally, If its either me working on the bke for 4-6 hours or me sitting there while someone else does the work, and I pay for it, for 2 hours I'd rather have the fun.

Can I get more prices on the 4K mile checkup?  As soon as winter is over, I need to ride over to the dealer and have this done.

your best bet would actually be to call them and ask.

I called about a month ago, and they said about $200.  Not bad.  But there was a post stating around $800?!?!?

Quote from: annguyen1981I called about a month ago, and they said about $200.  Not bad.  But there was a post stating around $800?!?!?

It's going to depend on the dealer and how much they want to charge.  On my TL, for example, to have the valves checked and adjusted in Amarillo it'll cost me $545/est.  If I do it at the dlr in Conroe (I frequent often) it's $285/est.

Quote from: makenzie71

Quote from: annguyen1981I called about a month ago, and they said about $200.  Not bad.  But there was a post stating around $800?!?!?

It's going to depend on the dealer and how much they want to charge.  On my TL, for example, to have the valves checked and adjusted in Amarillo it'll cost me $545/est.  If I do it at the dlr in Conroe (I frequent often) it's $285/est.

So it does vary by dealer...  DAMN!

the only thing I didn't do myself was the valves. I got the bike into a new shop in town and paid $115 (valves adjustment and new spark plugs and chain slack adjustment).

I can't believe the valves would need adjusting after just 4,000 miles on a new bike, at least not enough to warrant all the disassembly that's required. If the engine's running well, starts and idles smoothly, and doesn't smoke, I wouldn't worry about it. Make that I didn't worry about it; I just turned 5,000 miles.

Quote from: dbNncI can't believe the valves would need adjusting after just 4,000 miles on a new bike, at least not enough to warrant all the disassembly that's required. If the engine's running well, starts and idles smoothly, and doesn't smoke, I wouldn't worry about it. Make that I didn't worry about it; I just turned 5,000 miles.

It's called "breaking in".  After being run for a while the parts inside a new motor start to settle.  That includes the valvetrain.  After a 4k check you can very likely put every other mile the bike will see on it without "needing" an adjustment.

The nebulous world of preventive maintenance combined with the mysticism of the break-in period. Since following all maintenance schedules should yield a well-running bike, we need volunteers who will do no maintenance so we'll have a baseline for research for cost-benefilt analyses.

Looking at the procedure to check valve clearance, and short of any other symptoms that would indicate valve adjustment is needed, I think I'll wait until I plan to do a rejet or carb rebuild or some other nearby job at the same time. Or, just let the next owner do it.

(Funny I should write this the same day I bought a new oil filter...but I did go with the NAPA Gold [Wix] filter instead of the Fram.)