Having some time to get round to it, I've finally done the slightly overdue valve check at 34k miles (yeah, I'm lazy and haven't had many free weekends for quite a while). I've also changed the spark plugs and will change the oil, coolant, brake fluids and air filter and do some general tidying and checking over while I'm at it seeing as we're locked down for the foreseeable.
Well, I've done the valve clearance measuring, put the cylinder head cover back on and changed the plugs so there's just the rest of the reassembly to go at the weekend. At a gentle 8-ish hours so far, it's about as fiddly a job as on most modern bikes, taking quite a bit longer than on my old '80 Z750 where I could do the whole job easily in a couple of hours (there again, that was so easy to work on that after it jammed in gear one time, I pulled the engine out to swap the gearbox and transfer the kick-start mechanism from an old Z650 engine in an evening and rode it to work the next day!) It'll be a quicker job next time it needs doing now that I'm familiar with it but that won't be for several years' time now I'm not doing 120 miles to the office every week.
The good news is that all the valves were in spec so I didn't have to remove the camshafts to swap any shims which saves a bit of faffing around.
For anyone still wondering if the spark plugs really need changing every 7k6 miles; I'd say definitely not. They were healthy brown but a little bit eroded at the ground electrode so I won't leave them quite so long next time and will probably do them in 25k or so - not that I've noticed any problems with starting, misfiring or power loss.
Out of interest, does anyone change coolant hoses at the specified mileages? I've never done so and have never had any problems.
Anyway, time to relax with a well-earned beer now!
