Valve Adjustment...fear of failure

KLR 650's have valves which need checking fairly regularly, and adjustment if the clearances are off. I was told that a "wrench" or a dealer could do it in about 2-3 hours. It took me a bit longer, about 5 hours but at no time was I in the panic that is associated with screwing something up. There is about an hour of bike disassembly to get down to the valve cover bolts. Once the bolts were off, the valve cover and gasket came off easily. The measurement was tough to accomplish because I had to find Top Dead Center (TDC) and it's hard to do with tri-focal glasses. VBG. I found that the valves were out of adjustment, so had to order new shims to fit in the buckets in the valve train. Thanks Fred at Arrowhead Motor Sports for fast service over the holiday weekend. The biggest fear I had was that I was going to drop a metal object down the timing chain case and really get into a mess. Having been forewarned by the information on Mark's KLR website, I stuffed the case with shop rags and effectively blocked the way for any errant nuts, bolts or shims. It went back together easily, the shims did their job, and I can't believe how proud I was of myself for doing that job. I was also becoming more attached to the bike. She has been good to me.