In article , Nick Hull
says...

I shut it down to put the valve covers back on and checked the
compression - was back to the 100# it used to run. Restarted easily and
everything appears normal now. All from a crappy foam air filter.

This thing may use the same 250 motor that kaw puts in their
KLR dual-sports - if so, keep a close eye on the *intake* valves.
On mine they kept on tightening up, to the point where it needed
weekly adjustments to keep it startable.

When I finally took the head off, I was able to remove the valve
keepers by hand, the valves had worn so badly. Seems that
there was a design change and they put harder valves in as a retrofit
after a certain year. The exhausts were always hard.

If the starting issues keep cropping up, make sure you have about
8 thou of clearance on the intakes when cold. If that keeps going
away, you need to pull the head and put new valves in. The parts
aren't expensive, all you need is valves (I did all 4), seals
(pity to not do them when you're in there) and a head gasket.

All told it was about a hundred dollars of stuff. Be sure to get
the updated valves if you do this.

Jim


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