Actually, I took the front cover off for repainting because it had quite a bit of corrosion on it, even though the bike is a 2012. The first owner, from whom I bought the bike in 2015, was a lobster fisherman who lived right on the oceanfront in Nova Scotia. I think he must have parked the thing on the beach.
It is nice to have the cover off, though. I checked the valve clearances a few days ago - no worries about the cam chain falling down the hole, easy to see the chain tensioner move, and of course, no fooling around with mirrors and flashlights to look through that little hole for the timing mark.
With the big cover off, I also was able to determine that the valves had never been done before - the nut that the 17 mm socket goes on to turn the engine over was in pristine condition, it had never seen a socket wrench applied to it.
Michael