You could go either way. If you do it to one you should do it to the other I would think. It just makes sense. So, if the other head is not off then just trim up the edges lightly with a wire brush and call it a day.

 

I've never been a real fan of this. I'm just too paranoid about the **** getting down in the rings. I'll clean up the head while I got it off but I leave the deck of the piston alone. I use my shop vac with a concentrator nozzle to keep all the debris out of the cylinder as I'm removing the head beyond that I don't touch it. I've been told by other mechanics not to even rotate the engine while the heads are off. Just my .02

 

unless your removing the cylinders and replacing rings and gaskets. your as likely to cause a problem as you are to fix it. If there is a lot of carbon, then you NEED to clean the pistons and most likely replace the leaking rings causing blow by. It's not something that works as a band aid though. If there is a lot of carbon, there is a reason, not fixing the cause, means it's not worth your time to address the symptom. Unless your ready to do rings, bore and plate the cylinders (NSC = Nickel Silicon Carbide Coatings the only way to go IMHO on a new bore) leave the pistons alone. When you say replace the head,, your just talking about the valves you bent yes?

 

If it's a heavy buildup as TX says, then I agree. You need to fix the cause, not the effect. There's an old mechanic's trick that I've used in the past with good results. It involves using a spray bottle of water and misting the water into the carb openings as you're running the bike. You essentially steam clean your combustion chamber. I did it with my old 78 T-bird and an 82 Camaro I had with no ill effects. I've not tried this with a bike though.

With bikes I find that flogging the **** out of them at the track and using race gas works well too.