So, I received the Lisle valve keeper tool and got a chance to put it to work. I was able to replace the remaining seven valve seals in about 40 minutes. That tool was worth every dollar, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has to take on this job. It really was as simple as setting the tool in place and whacking it with a hammer. Like magic!
Here's a good video on how it works; I would have taken more pictures but was kind of busy trying to hit the tool and not my hand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1DmJQ4Fods
Here's the pictures of the teardown to get to the valves. I used rope packed in through the spark plug holes to prevent the valves from dropping. I rotated the piston for each cylinder to top dead center to compress the rope and hold the valves. It was fiddly, but as the air compressor has decided to die, I couldn't use the fancy air pressure tool to hold the valves shut. It also helped to use thick wheel bearing grease to hold the keepers in the retainer. It's a good start up lube too.
The best news of all? After putting the bike back together, resetting the valve clearances (go for 0.10mm on the exhaust; the stock specced 0.08mm is too tight once the bike gets hot), setting the idle screws to two turns out, and getting the float bowls full again, the bike ran great. No smoke at all, even after running it hard for 30 minutes; the valve seals were the culprit. That makes all this work worth it.
I'm still tweaking the air box cover - since the original didn't come with the bike, I've made one out of part of a bottle of Mobil1 motorcycle oil. Plus 5 hp for using that plastic, let me tell you! It was a process of rev the bike, find out where it gets starved for air, cut the opening in the plastic a bit bigger, rinse, repeat, until I found an opening size that let the bike rev to redline without choking. I suppose I could run the filter uncovered and jet up, but right now I'm just glad to have it running well. It makes the bike a lot easier to start as well.