I've owned a lot of bucket/shim motorcycles over decades, but I'm still amazed at how long most of these bikes go without valve clearances changing much. My '06 has well over 30K miles, and it never has gone out of the adjustment tolerance range. I'm going to southern Utah again at the end of next month, so I thought I'd go ahead and replace shims that were at their last adjustment size. Two of them were still at proper tolerance but at the last measurement before too tight, and the other two were only a thousandth over that. I figured what the heck, just do it.

All shims were 3.05mm and I went to 3.00. I'm just impressed how well the valves and seats wear on this bike. I've never owned even a bucket/shim engine that went this long on a motorcycle...especially a dirt/dualsport bike. Good job, Kawasaki.

 

That is good to hear. I needed to drop shim thicknesses by 2 steps on my KLR650 at 8K miles.

Didn't shift much after that through 30K miles when I gave the bike to a buddy.

Did you see much change at early clearance checks? I plan on doing the first check on my KLX250 at 6K miles.

 

My 06 GSXR1000 has over 40k miles on it now-valves are still in spec.

 

I reshimmed only once on my 12 years old KLX with 19Kmiles, nearing thousand hours. I'm not babying it, I wring it a lot. Yes, thank you Kawasaki for a motorcycle we can do more time riding than wrenching on.

 

No, the first valve check on this bike only changed about one shim size from right at max clearance to where it has been since '06. That's what's really odd to me. Break-in didn't require any shim changes, and it settled right into the middle range. Like I said even at over 30K, it was still within spec, just at the end of spec. I'm just surprised and impressed. Usually the first major service/wear issue on a 4-stroke is valve wear. Good design and water-cooling goes a long way. At the shop I used to work at part time, I've seen the old air-cooled Z-1's go well over 100K before needing a valve job. Kawasaki has done well with their OEM valves and valve seat material/design on most of their bikes. Heck, with good care just about all the Japanese designed bikes do well, I guess.

 

Sure wished my valves worked as well as the KLX valves...

 

I just finished checking my 09 for the first time at 10,000 miles. all pretty close to dead on: 15,16 and 20, 21. Anyone have luck re-using the cover gasket? Mine looks good but seems to be stretched. Can't get it to fit the grooves in the cover.

 

You should be able to re-use the valve cover gasket. Mine still has the original since '06 with over 30K miles.

 

I have reused similar gaskets many times on my Concours and VFR. But with the KLX when I try to fit the gasket into the grooves on the cover I can get one side done but then the corners do not line up. If I stretch it to make it fit one end it pops out the other end. I

 

The first few years of KLX300 production were known for **** poor valve life. First adjustment less than 3,000 miles and could easily max out the shims soon after. The valves cupped, allowing the gap to go to zero. It sounds like the changes Kawi made fixed the problem.

Ride on
Brewster