Hello all, first post.

I'm doing a tuneup on my daughters friends bike, I've not turned wrench's on a GS500 before(I have a Clymer).  Bike is a 95 with 15k miles.  The bike has a stock gearing and I think the bottom end grunt is pretty low, but I haven't ridden a GS500 before, maybe it just needs to be wound up like a 250 Ninja to get it rolling along, once I hit 7000rpms the motor feels alive.  I'm also thinking of a 14 tooth CS, bike is a city bike, with little freeway.

Plugs are a nice tan color (Jetting seems spot on)
140 & 135 Compression                                                                                         
Carbs sync'ed
No smoke in the exhaust.

Valve adjustment???

I'd checked valves on many bikes, shim/buckets, and tappets.  On a KZ650(shim/bucket), usually the clearance gets smaller as the miles ad up.  I've been reading post here on the forum, and have seen some logs of valve wear, some show the clearance getting smaller with wear, and some where the gap gets larger.  I'm scratching my head.

On this GS500 I have intakes of 0.04mm and 0.06mm, both good in my book, but with 0.04mm getting close to the 0.03mm-0.08mm range.

Exhaust I'm on the large side.

#1 a 0.076mm slides under with no friction, and a 0.102mm is a very tight fit.
#2 0.102mm is a tight fit, but not as tight as in #1.

Both are over the .08mm limit.

My main Question is:  Normally the clearance gets smaller with miles, mainly due to seat wear.  I'm a little large on the exhaust, will these shrink with mileage?  Or do I have another part wearing, and the clearance is growing with miles?  I've read many posts here that the ex clearance gets to 0 on many bikes, that's why I'm confused with overly large readings.

Will these reading have any bearing on the low end torque that I don't have?  I don't have a bucket depressor, but I need to change both the Ex shims, so I'll just lift the cam(I've done this a lot with KZ's) to get at the shims.

I have no prior history on this bike, so I don't know which way they are wearing.

Overall impression of the GS500, fun smaller bike.  I've been packing lots of miles on a SM bike, and the GS turns really good, I've even drifted a few corners without thinking, it just needs more HP javascript:void(0);  The bike is cold blooded and takes a couple of minutes to warm up, is this a trait of the GS500?  After 2 minutes it idles by itself ~1000rpms, I don't like to run the bike with the choke on, I use just to start the bike, then hold some throttle so the bike doesn't stall.

Any tips or Ideas?

Thanks

A neat trick was posted for avoiding the "special valve shim tool". Basically hold the valve open/bucket down with a nylon wire tie inserted through the spark plug hole.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=43440.0

Should be a lot faster than lifting the camshaft.

Choke on is normal, just back it down to keep it under 4000 as needed. I often ride off with it still partly on rather than sitting in the driveway the whole time, and shut it off after 1/2 mile or so.

You are correct; the gap we measure gets tighter with wear, thus allowing dwell time to be too short -- over heating the faces.  Being a bit over spec on EX is not gonna worry me much.  Stock gearing is kind of sluggish until you get 'er in warp drive; 'cept there ain't no warp drive on the GS-500.

prs

Intake valves haven't changed for me in 80k miles on one bike and 60k on another.  I've taken to setting my exhaust valves to .004-.005" when I change shims to extend exhaust valve life.  I wouldn't change those shims on your bike unless your redlining it all day long.

My 97 GS was very lean and cold blooded and would hardly pull at all below 4k rpm.  My 02 GS has the newer 3 circuit carbs and isn't nearly so lean.  Will pull from 2.5-3k rpm comfortably.  I didn't rejet either.  You'll get used to keeping the revs up.

A stock GS's power peak is at about 8500 rpm so there is nothing to gain revving over 9-9500 rpm and I don't.  Upshifting at 9k will drop you to about 7k right on top of the torque curve.  Hard running between 7-9k gives me best performance and 4-7k rpm for just putting around is good.

My valve check log:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/valveclearances.jpg

PS-  you can change shims with a couple screwdrivers, no need for a special tool or lifting cams.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/ValveShimTools.jpg

I think GSJack is right. Exhaust valve clearance might be OK if you're not wringing every ounce out of the bike. Heat buildup in the valve is the issue. How hot do you run it? What climate are you in?

On the other hand, it's so easy to swap the shim, you don't have much to lose by doing it. You can swap again later if you change your mind.

Your guys rock.

From the reply's, I'm going to leave the valves alone.  The bike is just a commuter and not driven hard.  I'm going to drop the CS 2 teeth and call it good.  All fluids have been changed and everything got greased, and it has new tires, it's ready for the summer.  Sounds like the valves will be good for some time now.

Thanks for all the tips on shim change, I really like the zip tie pictures.

I was glad to hear that the clearance's get smaller with mileage.  Maybe the PO re-shimmed to the loose side on the exhaust valves.   Bike was just bought used, and I've had no luck getting a hold of the PO. 

Thanks again.