valve tapping question

[funkamongus]

here's something I dont know,, this bike sat for a while before I got it.. Ive been getting her running, going around the block and stuff,, working the problems.. so this is the thing,, when I first got her going,, she was tappy,, VERY tappy,, I went in the side cover and tightened some gears and bolts, put her back,, ran her a bit more,, still tapped a bit, but not as bad,, I went to start her up today... nearly tapless. I mean smooth.. SO, around to the question,, Im wondering if the rings/seals/ all the stuff up in the cylinder just needed to get some oil up there and some heat cycles to work things back in.. possible?? Am I trippin?

[inanecathode]

You're straight trippin dawg.
Rings generally are one of three things: Stuck, Wheezy, or Fine.
If your bike is not burning tons of oil, and its not smoking or blowing oil into the breather box, the rings are fine.
As far as tappyness is concerned, they're not hydraulic lifters (complicated) they're just shim in bucket soooooooo they wont like, 'wear in' if thats what you mean. Sometimes the oil can be pretty thinned out/seperated from sitting for a while, and sometimes also alot of the oil passages drain out, oil pump isnt used to pumping oil, so it takes a few runs for everything to get back into shape. :)

Short answer: Yeah, that sounds right.

[funkamongus]

good news.It did blow some oil into the box, a bit out of the pipes too, but that also has stopped..  Ill check them anyway, especially since xvision was so good to send me the tool to borrow for a minute,, Im thinking I may be off the hook for shims though!! I hope!!

[Rick G]

More than likely the rings have reseated. A bit of oil in the air box is normal, pull the lid every so often and clean out the air box and the filter.