70,000 Mile Maintenance

My road bike has made the 70K mile mark and needed a bunch of maintenance.  This bike has been completely trouble-free, but that's probably due in part to being pretty diligent about routine maintenance.  All my stuff is getting old and worn-out just like me.....my pickup truck has 175,000 miles as does our Honda Odssey van.  The Miata has 136,000 miles.   Anyway, here is what I've been doing with the bike:

This is the second bike I've had that has a full fairing.  I love the look and wind protection provided by the fairing, but it does add steps to the maintenance process.  The first thing was to remove the belly fairing.

Then I could get to the drain plug and the oil filter to change the oil.  The carpet remnant makes it easier on old knees. 

Next, to really get "under the hood", I've got to remove the windscreen.  You can clearly see the GPS mound I installed on the "dash". 

Then the dash itself is removed.  Kawasaki calls it the "instrument surround" in the service manual.

Now the main fairing can be removed and we can see there is actually an engine in there. 

The gas tank is removed, exposing the airbox.  Since this is a fuel-injected motor, the air filter is a flat element that slides out of a slot.  It is a foam element and reusable after cleaning and re-oiling.

Beneath the airbox are the throttle bodies and the valve cover. 

Removing the valve cover exposes the cams and lifters.  Valve adjustment can now be checked.  This is a double overhead cam engine with four valves per cylinder and the cams push down on inverted cups directly on the valve stems.  The cups have replaceable shims underneath for changing clearance.  This means that if change is needed, the cam shafts have to be removed so that the cups can be lifted out.  This adds quite a bit of work to the project.  Fortunately for me, the valve clearance checked out OK.  At this point I also changed the spark plugs. 

The whole job, including buttoning everything back up, takes about four or five hours.  A good wrenching session, when things go right, is very rewarding and somewhat therapeutic.  When things don't go right......different story.  I've learned over the years how to avoid most of these bad outcomes.