Mechanic's Regret and How I Ruined my Favorite Bike

I got a new bike and then ruined it. Listen to me discuss my trauma 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@patrickdumont8670]

Open it up to see if your intuiton about the bolts was true. If it is rebuild and put red lock tight on the new bolts. You have to pass that mechanic treshold. Ride safe 👌

[@JingleThis]

I have a 2009 FZ1 Retro that Ive been thinking about getting the valves checked by the dealer. I commute with it daily and havent noticed any drop in fuel mileage or loss of power. The only thing Ive done with it is putting a Dyno Jet Commander 5 and a fuel efficient map in it. It has a Coffman exhaust. Everything else is factory OEM. Original clutch, rotors, sprockets, chain, spark plugs. I had the timing chain/guide replaced at 15k miles so they also did a coolant flush - and the tech said the engine looked flawless inside. I havent done any mods except deleting the EXUP valve and plugging the AIS hose to stop the backfiring on decel. What a fantastic, reliable bike. aNYwhO - Did you find your valves out of tolerance when you did the work?

[@tinkerbike2510]

Sounds like you’ve got a great setup. I wish mine was still rideable right now. When I did the valve check I had 3 exhaust valves that were out of spec. The bike has 31000 miles on it.

[@ariesmarsexpress]

So I learned that same lesson many, many years ago pretty much the same way on a 73' super Beetle. You only have to learn it once fortunately. Here is the thing about the tolerances inside an engine. They don't stay the same as the manual over its lifetime and there are frequently other parameters other than cold steel that have to be true in order to measure those tolerances. An actual mechanic who does that kind of work all the time will have the correct tools for all of that and frequently, we only have a wrench and feelers. He will know if he needs to just change the tolerances. We won't. The bolts probably didn't back out, the tolerances were probably just wrong and it fried the engine, or any number of a hundred other things you didn't even know to look for.

[@underthedrone2735]

What bike are you talking about?

[@tinkerbike2510]

2008 Yamaha FZ1 I owned years ago that I recently bought back