Don’t worry … you are not the only one … :))
Although , I know a good mechanic around Ace , just in case something more than cleaning the chain comes up.
You should get yourself a Haynes manual for your bike. Simple instructions with lots of photos. Each job explained in the book even has a recommended experience rating (from noob to a proper mechanic), so you can know beforehand if you are going to fail miserably on more complex jobs.
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the thinner shim to give the looser clearance that is in tolerance 
Valve wear is counter intuitive… more wear = tighter (less clearance)
and eventually it can wear so much it gets too tight and one of the
symptoms then is lack of compression.
just don’t trust them implicitly
The OMC course which shows you how to do this is really useful. I’ve paid to have them done on my old bike (CB500) and the newer bike (600RR) both times it made a huge difference. You don’t tend to notice the drop in performance as it is incremental and happens over a long period of time. Biggest difference was on the CB500 which I don’t think had ever had it done before, it felt like someone had remapped the engine.
I see where you’re coming from Mike, you’re talking about wear on the valve faces or valve seats which is an entirely different can of worms.
My point is that valve clearances are generally affected by the combined wear of several components including; valve tips, tappet buckets, tappet shims and the camshaft lobes. Valve clearances that are outside manufacturers specified tolerances can cause critical engine failure and the only way to ensure that the clearances are within specification is to get down between the shims and camshaft lobes with a feeler gauge. When, should the clearances prove to be out of specification, you can also inspect the valve tips, tappet buckets, tappet shims and the camshaft lobes.
By all means carry out compression tests. They are a good indication to the condition of engine components that are not so easy to access (valve faces, valve seats, valve seals, piston rings, cylinder bore and head gasket) but please do not rely on the results to give any indication of the valve clearances.
I wouldn’t trust my own mother implicitly :laugh:
Thanks for all the responses. I reckon when I eventually get round to buying a new(er) bike I’ll be sure to check the service history carefully. Seems from looking on a few different forums that once a bike has 16,000+ miles under its belt, the clearances should be checked, adjusted if required, and they tend not to go much (if at all) out of spec after that.
Reason I asked was that I was having a clear out at the weekend and found an old Ride magazine featuring the Hornet as a used buy. One of the featured owners was an old boy in South Wales who had 80k odd miles on his Hornet and he had never checked his valves. Still ran like a champ… allegedly 
Here’s why
Factory set valve clearances are hit and miss because the factory workers are on tight time constraints. Plus, modern machining tolerances, materials, designs and oils are tighter and better then ever before. Therefore after the initial running in and settling down of an engine, about 12,000 miles or so under normal running conditions, and after the initial check/adjustment the engine will have bedded in and should go on for some time before the next adjustment is required. But don’t take my word on that check and adjust those valve clearances as per manufacturers specification.
Exceptions to the rules
Owners Club Members who want their pride and joy to last forever and only rev the engine between idle and 50% of the red line, except when missing a gear change, tend to get inter galactic mileage without any valve clearance adjustments because the engine tends to run a a fairly constant speed under very little load.
At the other end of the spectrum are the track bikes whose pilots want to shave every millisecond of their lap time and who will be running the engine between 50% to the red line and in some cases beyond. These guys will be checking and adjusting their valve clearances prior to every event.
Somewhere in between these two extremes will be everybody else
Valve clearances may not need adjusting but they do need checking from time to time to be sure to be sure they do or don’t need adjusting 