Good afternoon all.  Its 43 degrees outside here in Windsor Ontario and I just got in from my first ride in months.(It is supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow)

Which leads me to my question.  Where is the best place to buy a valve shim kit online?  I just need the shims.  They are 29.5mm diameter correct?  A company called pro-cycle has a hot cams shim kit for the gs500, however hotcams told me they don't even make any valve shim for the gs500.

I believe many bikes use 29.5mm shims, not just the GS. As long as the diameter is the same, you should be fine. Also, do you need an entire shim kit? You're only ever going to need shims thinner than the ones you already have, so a kit would probably have a whole bunch of shims you don't need...

As I posted yesterday,

1. Call some of the local shops around town and seeing if they will trade used shims. 
2. Pull your shims.
3. Trade for a small used shim from them, like a 250.  You'll use this to measure what shim sizes you'll need.
4. Go back to the shop and trade for the proper shim sizes.

There you go, properly sized shims for a minimal trade fee (the local shop charged me $1) and gas money.  No waiting for the mail to arrive, no shelling out $. 

Or go cheap and sand yours, just putting it out there that it's always an option, remember that the sanded side goes down. Just need to buy a micrometer or a set of digital calipers to measure how much you've sanded down. The advantage to this is that you don't have to leave your bike, go to the parts shop buy a shim then reinstall and risk getting the wrong size. Bad part is it could take a while if you're not used to lapping.

 

Try this site:

http://www.crc2onlinecatalog.com/Index_Main_Frame.htm

Inexpensive, you can order what you need, and reliable delivery.



Mike

29.5mm diameter is correct for Suzuki GS500.