60,000 Mile Valve Clearance Check - V-Strom (Time Lapse) 

The Vstrom is an amazing bike. Bulletproof and does EVERYTHING good. It doesn’t do anything great, but if your a avid rider and want an everyday rider, there’s not a better bike. 210k on mine! Runs better than the day I bought it. Cheers

I bought a DL1000 2009 just 3 weeks ago. 40 000miles on the clock. Your videos have inspired me to tackle the maintenance myself. I have done car engines, but only biking for 6 years now, and thought I needed to take my V Strom to the agent's workshop, but with your instructional videos, I know I can do it myself. The bike runs really beautifully and has no issues, no crashes. It's my best bike yet. And my bike for life. At 58yrs old, I have, and have had: Suzuki Gixxer 150 (new), BMW F650GS 2006 61 000km, BMW F800ST 2012 32 000km, Honda TransAlp 2008 42 000km, and now the V Strom 1000 64 000km, and the V Strom is the best yet by far. What an awesome machine! Still have the GS and the TransAlp. But the DL1000 is by far my favorite. Selling the GS to my cousin and gave the TransAlp to my 22yr old son. My riding buddy. Sold the Gixxer. Thank you for your time and videos. Very much appreciated.

Highly valued production and fun too . Thanks soo much man !

Thanks for the pointers, specially the fairing removal with the Givi Crash guards.

I have to say, I maintain 3 vehicles and three bikes and this looks like alot of work. I wish motorcycle companies would make things easier. Thanks for the video I've been thinking of selling 2 bikes to get a v-strom.

Your content is fantastic. I'm learning a lot from your videos and using that knowledge on my v-strom 1000 03. Greetings from the end of South America.

I believe you've convinced me to defer this check. I'm at 14,500 miles on my 2013 dl650. Thanks for all the great videos~

Hi from Greece,i have a V-strom 650,2005 with 204.000 km.I checked my valve clearance at 185.000km mark.They were all just like yours. Exactly in the center of the specs.Cylinder compression is still at 230 psi and oil pressure at 60 degrees Celcious and 3000 rpm at 56psi. Its an extremely reliable engine.

Now I want one! Thanks for the awesome video! :)

Great! let's hope we all get the same reliability from our stroms :)

Thanks a lot from France for your video ! I have a 2010 650 V-strom and love it, and have to do my valve clearance check. Never done and 25 000 miles :-) My dealer told me he never had to ajust it on a V-strom before 25 000 :)

They are great bikes. I had mine for 20K miles and rode it place I probably shouldn't have 😁. Nice video 👍

You got me . I see a vstrom in my future. I subbed.

Super clean inside.

Great how to video... Tnx

I just hit 59k on my 650 and have not checked these yet . . . thanks for putting together a great play by play! I'd love to see what replacing them looks like assuming we ever have to do that. :)

Very helpful!

The 2017 model is a great bike too. Someone here said VS is not great but good in many ways. That's true. But, is very easy handle, light, confort is a plus.

It's amazing to see you and others logging so many miles on this machine. I also recently transitioned from a M50 cruiser to the DL1000 (2010 model). Reading various forums, I hv learnt many owners complaining about the "clutch chudder" issue on this machine plus a unusually stiff clutch lever. Would appreciate if you can share any relevant experience and tips to avert / limit these issues. Thank you

Thanks for the video, i'm at 28k on my 2006 DL 650. Given all I've heard, I'm going to save my precious time and roll the dice that all is well for another 30k.

Hi urban monk, love the videos very well made and presented! I have a 08 dl 1000 and was wondering could u do a video on changing the headstock bearings? Thanks a lot from Brazil.

Impressive! I’ve had to adjust the valve lash on my Beemer twice in 18k.

Hi.Very useful video. Thx for sharing. Have you thought of gently grinding your shims on a wet stone to put them to size. I have done it on my VW golf back in the time and it worked pretty well. You need to be slow and use lubricant to avoid removing the hardening of the steel.

I wish modern bikes were designed to work on without having to disassemble so much stuff unnecessarily. This is why i bought a Moto Guzzi Eldorado. So easy to work on. A take valve covers off. B adjust valves. C. Go riding.

Well, this has confirmed that I will be paying someone to do this for me!

I would add u don’t have to pull the radiator to check the front clearances. I’ve had to change front shims only draining the radiator and pulling hose to give me room. Cheers

My DL1000 2009 has 70.000 km on it and still drives ok , this summer I want to let the clutch basket get modified because of the chudder in it .But I'm in doubt if it' s neceseary .Still drives great,

Great Video though

Excellent friend video. Congratulations. Could you comment on which fluids you use for the engine, cooling and brakes and what is the change period?

Vstrom's 650 and 1000 are bulletproof ! What els do you need on public roads? Love mine 650! # i only see supersports ore big BM's in my mirrors whene im on twisty roads...😎...

Stayed for the music

watching now , while I have the tank of for air filter ill do the plugs and my over flow tank is cracked , not sure if I can remove that while the tank is off thru there or remove the right fairing completely

I have a 2002 model with 30,000 miles on it. I just bought it. It had Delkevic exhausts which were super loud. I put the stock back on and loaded a fuel map from the Power Commander folks. Bike runs way better but now I can’t get over the noise from the engine. Performs flawlessly but it is like a magical weird noises machine. It makes me worry. Valves adjustment was just done and the clutch shudder elimination clutch basket change has been done. Is the weird noise thing just a fact of VStrom life?

Wow. Lots of stuff to remove to do a valve check. Makes a GS look like a cakewalk.

Great vídeo ! I would like to ask about the oil changes intervals and the average of RPM that you drive, it's is because at 60,000 miles your valves are within specifications. I think that if you keep the engine running most of the time at mid range, the valves will keep in going shape tolerances. Greetings from Mexico.

Watching this makes me want to sell my V-Strom. Could the fairing and radiator be any more of a pain to get off?

Where are You from, Im budhist AND a Vstrom owner, Id like to become a monk as well hehe regards from Querétaro, México and thanks for the video... Subscribed

Dear Urban Monk, I admire your videos finding them very helpful. I also ride DL1000 2010 model. Need yr advice on how to fix the lean running issues on this bike especially between the 2500 to 4000 rpm range. I hv ruled out vaccum leaks, switched to paper air filter from K&N but the bike backfires into the air box and occasionally stalls when the engine is hot upto 3 bars (like after a long run) stopping in heavy traffic. It otherwise starts easily, pulls fine above 3500 rpm, is giving a good fuel average. It also has the infamous clutch chudder in lower revs but i can tolerate that. Would like to hear from yr experience if u hv encountered any of the above problems and how u fixed them. Many thanks.

Your video allowed me to have an idea of what to expect but in my opinion you should have stopped the high speed video when you arrived at the clearance check part and showed us what you were really doing while giving some detailed explanations about what you were doing.

what was the valve measurement that you had before you had to adjust it ? Was it at the front ot back cylinder ? was it an exhaust or an intake valve ?

So i just picked my first motorcycle a couple months back. 08 dl650 with about 56k miles. So I'll be due for a valve ck in the next several months. What's the actual time to do the check? Couple hours I'm guessing.

I have a 2015 v Strom 650 with 4500 miles when would you suggest me checking the valve clearance knowing that yours is still in tolerance at 60,000

Definitely selling my strom before I have to do this lol

What oil are you using ?

What happens if you continue to ride the bike with out of tolerances ?

Got a Vstrom question for you before I go down a rabbit hole , so I have an 2005 Vstrom dl650 and a few months ago the performance was great , had plenty of power could hit top speed when I wanted too and I had no complaints . I started noticing it would run better some day’s better than others but as time went on I started loosing power and before you know it now in 5-6 gear it’s as if I have a limiter or something? I can only get 7k rpm out of the thing and Also it’s sluggish during acceleration? So I’ve just past 50k miles on the bike , did my valve Clarence adjustments, new plugs, fresh oil, new air kn filter , synced throttle bodies ,new throttle cables, and flushed the radiator fluid. I did notice the front cyl plug told me that front cyl is a bit lean and I am about to clean my injectors , nothing I did changed this lack of performance however and now I am wondering about delivered fuel pressures, needing the ecu flashed or tpp sensors may be going out🤷🏻before I throw money and parts at this bike I’m seeking the best advice I can.

Veeery late comment, but may I ask what oil you have been using. Surely the oil also plays a big role in wear.

my 650 has only done 43k kilometers i dont think ill bother it runs fine

How do you remember all the steps to taking everything off?

What oil do you use?

You a Minnesotan?

these v-strom guys, just go looking for problems, cause there aren't any lol

At 9.48 you say that the clearances are 1 to 2mm . WRONG!!!!!! they are .1 to .2mm. Don't confuse people and give out wrong information. Americans seem to have a lot of trouble getting their heads around metric measurements and you're not helping. Otherwise the video is good.

I'll let my vstrom die before I ever disassemble the entire bike to check valves.