Valve shim suppliers???

[jrobert94]

Hi all,
Winter has certainly slowed me down so i figured (2 months ago) it was a good time to finally get around to doing my valve clearances. So, of course to start off the avalanche of problems, my feeler gauges didn't measure small enough. Ordered one from Z1, not exactly the best tool for the job but i got some idea of what sizes i will need. Looked on Z1, all shims are out of stock (most anyway) so i e-mailed them and asked when they'd be back in stock, and they said mid-January. Cool. in the mean time i ordered a proper feeler gauge from my snap-on guy, and looked at other shim suppliers and manufacturers (hot cam, pro-x), to no avail. They are ALL out of stock. I contacted a couple of them including this guy that sells them on eBay and basically the response i got was that K&L supply co. was jacking up prices and slowing production, or something like that. Now it is mid-January, Z1 is still mostly out of stock (in the sizes i need at least), everyone else seems to be out of stock too, and my bike is still in pieces.
Does anyone know of a supplier that has a good range of sizes (2.25-2.55mm) still available?
Thanks,
Joe

EDIT
Correction, Z1 is now mostly stocked, just missing the sizes i need most.

 

[tom203]

Join the shim club here.PM member ghostgs1 ( I think that's right) and tell him what shims you need. Chances are good that you can just interchange positions on some.

 

[jrobert94]

found a place called jets r us that had most of them in stock, so i ordered some there and some from z1. but thank you, i'll keep that shim club in mind if (when) i end up needing different sizes. and yes i can interchange positions of one shim, but that doesn't help too much

 

[Steve]

The idea behind the shim club is that you measure your clearances, check your shim sizes, let Ray (ghostgs1) know what you need. He will ship them to you, when you have them changed, you ship back what you took out. I think he asks that you cover the postage both ways, and does not turn down donations, but you will have to check the club for details.

If you would like a spreadsheet to help you keep track of what you have and what you need, look in my sig.

.