Shims vs. Threaded tappets

[robertbarr]

robertbarr,
if that 1985 Nighthawk is your current bike, you don't have to worry about valve adjustments - it has hydralic valve adjusters just like most all car engines.

Yeah, I was just kinda rubbing it in...

[80-81, GS 1100]

So I was down to my local Suz. dealer looking for a tappet adjuster tool and they told me that nobody uses threaded tappets anymore because they are not as reliable as shims and require adjustment about every 10k miles. And no, they didn't have the tool I needed.

So I went home and adjusted my valves with a homemade tool. Found that 3 of 16 valves needed very slight adjustment. After 36k miles, previous mantenance records/procedures unknown. This was all last spring (March or April, IIRC).

My question is this: Is my Suzuki dealer correct or is he just trying to discourage me from bringing my old dinosaur into his shop?
And are shimmed valves any more reliable (i.e., requiring less frequent adjustment) than threaded tappets?
Are they (shims) easier or more difficult to replace/adjust than tappets?
Seems like it was a pretty easy valve adjust to me. I have never seen valves that are shimmed.

I believe it really depends on your situation which is better.
I prefer threaded tappets, because I don't have a motorcycle
mechanic I can trust in my town and am used to them.
I had tappets on my BMW R100 which was the easiest
bike to adjust I have ever seen. I have them on my Kawasaki
Concours, which is harder because of the body work.
In the 80s I had the bad experiance of haveing a
shop crossthread a sparkplug in my Honda XL 600,
helicoil it and not tell me. A year later it started losing
compression. Since then I try to do all my own work.

IMO shims are a bigger hassle than tappets to adjust.
Buts thats me, I don't have a good dealer nearby,
and I am not used to ajusting shims. The Suzuki/Kawasaki
dealer nearby told me that a old Kawasaki Concours had
shims so I don't trust him.

But if you can buy a shim kit that has all your shims in
it, it is compensated by needing adjustment less often.
So neither system is superior for everyone.You have
to look at the bikes they are on, and who owns them.
If it was up to me, I would be rideing a 1200 nighthawk
which would be air cooled and have hydralicly adjusted
valves. But that bike does not exist so I compromise
by adjusting my own tappets.