Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods Valve Adjustment?????

I met a guy a few weeks ago who has the same red '03 America. I'm at 13.5K miles and figuring I'm due for my first valve adjustment, when this guy tells me that he has 25K and has never had one. He says the bike is running fine. What do you guys think about that?

theres only one answer.......every bike will be different.....one will need it desperatly at the first check (12k) or even well before, and others may be lucky and go 50k or who knows how far. Anything's possible. the question is, do you want to chance it? thers no way to know if you will be the lucky one. However, in reality most will be out of adjustment to some degree by the time they are where his is at. If you DO decide to try and go much further than the recomended 12k, at least CHECK them to be safe. You may find they're ok or close enough. removing the valve cover and checking them with a feeler gauge isn't hard. At least that way you won't be chancing it because if you find them in need you'll know you have to do it or possibly suffer the consequences.

I checked mine at 12k. They were all in spec. Due to check again this fall at 24k.
Slightly out of spec valves may not produce any noticeable performance decrease, but will accelerate wear on the valve train.

Valves follow the watched pot rule. If you don't check them, they will be badly in need of adjustment. If you do, they probably won't.

Thanks guys, I'll try not to push it much beyond 15K. I found a nice Triumph certified repair shop in Sacramento. They're a husband/wife owned shop, and pride themselves in their integrity and in not gouging their customers. Thought I'd give them a try anyway.