To those who checked own valve clearances..

[northwind]

Own good quality allen keys or better, allen sockets- the 3 bolts in each head can put up a bit of a fight, and you don't want to strip the bolt hole. Not common but I've seen a couple, always with people using cheap rubbish or unsuitable tools (at least one of the SV Rider ones was trying to use an imperial allen key...) Good quality allen sockets will pay you back a hundred times over!

thanks northwind, funny was thinking about getting the allen sockets the other day - couldn't see allen keys being ideal and unable to use the torque wrench with them.

[yorkie_chris]

Allen keys are the devil.

I've a set of draper expert 10mm hex and torx bits with 3/8" and 1/2" driving sockets and they get loads of use. Really advisable to get some.

[northwind]

My good ones are Teng Tools, they're better made than the bike Not that this is especially hard. Usually I stand by Clarke as a sensible balance of cost and quality but their allen key sockets aren't very good IMO, a couple of mine are undersized.

Not that this is especially hard. Usually I stand by Clarke as a sensible balance of cost and quality but their allen key sockets aren't very good IMO, a couple of mine are undersized

Doh! I was just looking at some of these on the machine mart website! maybe i will look at a different make then...

I got some halfords allen sockets, cheap enough and they've been going years. I'd also recommend getting a magnetic pick up tool in case you drop a shim.
My valve clearances were ok, all within tolerance.

what i would say just as a word of advice is write them down once you have checked em and the date they were checked, its so easy to forget, well is for me anyway, whats my name again?

I got Halfords pro hex sockets and I believe Toolfix torx sockets (couldn't get a set with up to 55T anywhere else)

[jambo]

Checking isn't hard. My one gem would be to check them with the lobe facing 180 degrees away from the bucket, and then at a couple of other points. If you look at a cross section of a cam, the lower 180 degrees of it should be uniform, but I have met at least one set of cams which were not, so they seemed fine, then when checked again seemed very tight. You will want to adjust the clearances to be correct for the tightest spot in that lower 180 degrees.

Shouldn't make any odds, but make sure where you measure them from is entirely repeatable, measuring somewhere else and finding the clearance is 0.05mm different AFTER you've had the cams out and in again is intensely annoying.

Jambo