I’ve just had a major service done on my BMW bike at the main dealers, including valve clearances, fitting of two new tyres (supplied by me) two new tubes and a free loan bike for the day and it was £330 plus the fuel I used topped up. Didn’t think that was too bad.
My son had his 24000 serviced on his KTM 1290 adventure S. Total cost £895.75. Oil, a filter and rocker gaskets was a minimal cost. The rest was Labour and VAT. That's the problem of having a bike in warranty. The car service garages i know work off a Data system where it tells them how long a job will take. If they go over that time and there was no real reason to go over the stated time allowance, they can only charge what the Data system says. But if they do it quicker they still charge the same. To me, this can work against the customer time after time. On my Tiger, i can remove the body panels, tank and airbox in 30ish minutes and the rocker cover off in an extra 5 minutes. So why do Triumph charge so much to do the valve clearances ?. They tell me it's 95% labour. A rocker gasket £20.00, a bit of sealer 50p, say a couple of shims @ 25p each. So at my workings out that should be 3 max hours labour @ £57 Per hour plus parts £22.00 max, Then VAT. Now am no Motorbike Tec but am not stupid either. There is a mobile bike mechanic down this way, fully insured and 98% of his work is by reputation and returning customs for over 30 years. OK, lower overheads etc but he has costed doing my valves for under £100 including parts. A full service by him is only around £250 for a triple. So i know who am phoning next time.
You’ll have to tell me where you can get shims for 25p each, all the ones I’ve seen are ten times that price
He's not underselling himself He's just bloody good at his job and knows Triples inside out. He is always booked well in advance. He did tell me some jobs are loss leaders( not saying valves are inc) but more or less guarantees him more work in the future. He used to work for Motorcycle City then at a main dealer that i won't say who. He's the one who told me he can buy shims for 25p but did say he wouldn't use them
Road tested a Maserati Levante on Sunday. Brilliant. 1st service quotation was between £500 -£900 + vat For f******** oil change!!! No thanks!
I've been quoted 20x that per shim. @In my own world are you using realistic figures there? I think we all agree that dealer servicing is excessively priced though.
Am estimating for the cheapest parts and labour. Labour around here is between £52 to £57 per hour. Part prices except for the shims are what i have found on the internet. I did do a search for shims and i can buy them from China and Taiwan for 25p and 17p each. Would i use them No?. Can't work out what they're made from as my translator was having problems with Mandarin. Probably not very accurate and only last 2 minutes before the engine goes bang.
You don't have to remove the cams to change the shims on a triple, triumph supply a valve hold down tool so the shims can be changed. You can easily copy it if you have reasonable skills. I have checked valve clearances on three triples at 12000 miles and they were all still within limits. I agree servicing costs are too high, but investing a few quid for a decent tool kit and doing it yourself is the way to go, there is no magic in any of this and the 1200 mile service is not complicated if approached methodically.
Any pictures of the tool Speeder? With a few dimensions would be ideal but failing that a reference measure would help.
Thanks both of you for info. Can either or anyone else confirm what models this will fit? As stated about the 1050 I was expecting Triumphs to be buckets over shims like my Kawasakis in the past. Obviously this means cam removal is unavoidable for a shim change.
Thanks Smilin but couldn't see the detail you mention on my phone, now gotcha. Cheers. Sadly it appears to only fit the recent older carb models, if that makes sense, and not the current crop of efi motors.
You are correct, it seems at some point the design was changed to shims under bucket. Cams out to change them. I suppose this goes a long way to explaining the high cost of this service if the clearances are found to be out of limits.
Just be thankful you haven’t got a VFR vtec that needs the valves doing. 1. Cams out, stopper plates in. 2. Cams in check clearances. 3. Cams out for any changes. 4. Cams in and recheck clearances. 5. Cams out, stopper plates out. 6. Cams in. That is 4 cams and 2 camchain tensioners every step and doesn’t include taking the bodywork off and (I think) draining coolant/ removing radiators. Make no wonder there are so many VFR’s for sale with 15,999 miles on.
Can confirm it will take Clive Wood a full day if not more to do a 24k. And he doesn't stop. You can watch so nothing to hide. A 24k on a SSSA (single sided swing arm) will prob also mean changing suspension linkage bearings as few (inc main dealers) dont do them. Then at 24 its not lube its replace. If you got SSSA , whoever does it make sure they are done.
Can confirm it will take Clive Wood a full day if not more to do a 24k. And he doent stop. You can watch so nothing to hide. A 24k on a SSSA (single sided swing arm) will prob also mean changing suspension linkage bearings as few (inc main dealers) dont do them. Then at 24 its not lube its replace. If you got SSSA , whoever does it make sure they are done.
It's an interesting topic, my Mazda car has a similar OHC layout to the speed triple, however no valve clearance checks are scheduled in services. It is all expected to last for the life of the engine which could be 100 thousand miles on modern cars. I accept bike motors are more highly stressed but suspect these valve checks are a bit of overkill as in my limited experience it is uncommon for adjustment to be required at 1200 miles and probably 24000 as well
Mazda have overhead cams. It end there. Clearances are hydraulic self adjusting, as most cars are now. So unless there is a problem need no attention Honda did play with hydaulic valve clearances on bikes many years ago but the idea did not catch on
