I heard an occasional tapping noise on start-up at the end of last season that I thought was the cam chain tensioner needing to click to the next tooth.  After some research it seems the alternator chain was another possible culprit and at 55,000 miles it was time to do it anyway and figured I might as well do the star springs at the same time.  I doubt the noise was the alternator chain as there were only a couple of light marks on the clutch cover but the chain was close to the service limit so it was indeed time to change it.  I will have to wait and see if the cam chain adjuster is indeed the culprit, we’ll see.  As others have found the worst part of the job is cleaning the gasket surface of the clutch cover, it took hours to get it completely clean.  Hopefully the new gasket plus a light coating of hylomar will mean I never have that hassle again.  As long as I had it partly torn down I adjusted the valves and can say definitively that 15,000 miles is the max interval I am willing to use as I had set the intakes at .005 and the exhausts at .009 at the last adjustment and this time several intakes had opened up to .006 (no big deal) and several exhaust valves had closed down to .007 which is the low end of the tolerance.  All in all only two valves were on the limit of the spec but I ended up adjusting about six of them to get back to my .005/.007-int/exh that I am using.  Now I just need to replace spark plugs, change the fork oil and tighten the steering head and I should be good to go for another season.

If anyone is interested in tire life on a PR3 I have 14,000 on the rear and it will need changing soon.  Considering the performance/price/life balance on these tires I am very pleased.  I will be interested in trying out a PR4-GT at the next tire change as life is supposed to be improved.

Mike G