400ex valve and maintenance questions

[Sportsman500Rider]

I am interested in purchasing a 400ex but i'm worried about adjusting the valves. I heard you need to check them every 20hrs. checking and adjusting valves looks kinda confusing to me and i wouldn't enjoy checking the valves every 20hrs. How much would it cost to get them adjusted at the local dealer? Also what can happen if you don't adjust them? What do you guys do with your valves? And one more thing how often do you have to change oil in a 400ex is once or twice a year for just trail riding okay?

 

[doin it in the dirt]

Hey, I am not sure if I can totally give you an accurate answer here, but I do own a 2001 400ex. We as far as I know (i will have to run this one past the old man cause he does more of the maintence on it) but I don't think we have ever adjusted the valves that i know of....again I could be wrong here!...that tends to happen lol. As for chnging the oil, Ricky does the filtres at least once a year, sometimes twice depends on how much we ride and where we ride, and the oil is done at the same time, this year its been twice, but last year it was only done the once. not sure if that helps you at all or not. Mine is trail ridin most of the time and as it hit its 10 year mark this year still is running top notch....thats too my old man keeping up with the little things!! best of luck to you!