You have most probably only made a common apprentice error.

Place the bike on the centerstand and chock the stand as required to get the rear wheel off the ground. Remove both valve covers, and both spark plugs. Place the bike in high gear, and now we can turn the engine very precisely by bumping/rotating the rear tire.

As you slowly bump the engine in one direction with one hand, the other hand can insert a 12" length of coat hanger wire down the sparkplug hole. Stop at a position that pushes the maximum amount of wire out of the plug hole. That is "TDC" on both cylinders. However, one cylinder is on the compression position, the other is on the valve over-lap position. You can only adjust the valves in the compression position, and this is where I suspect you are making your error.

While looking down on the top of the engine, bump the rear wheel back and forth from TDC (about plus and minus 20° either side of TDC) and you will see one set of the rocker arms moving. Adjust the set of valves that are NOT MOVING. (Obviously, for a rocker arm to be moving it cannot have any freeplay.)

When you finish with those 2 valves, then rotate the engine 360° to the next TDC. At this point the opposite set of rocker arms will be moving when the piston is around TDC. You can now adjust the opposite set of rocker arm clearances.

► If you like, when you find TDC with the wire, you can look in the flywheel window with a flashlight and you will see the engine's TDC indicator mark (usually "OT") very near by.

► There are 720° in every engine cycle, so turning the engine 360° will return you to the first engine position and you can re-check your work.

► Owing to carbon deposits under the valves and other accumulated engine sludge, be aware that valve clearances may change several times over the course of the first 200 miles. The main thing is that they retain some freeplay or clearance on the compression stroke.

Hope this helps.

What you are trying to achieve is the absence of tension on the rocker arm so that you can adjust clearance when the pushrods are slack, which is to say not being lifted by the cam. The way I do it is to defeat motor compression like Wobbly says and turn the motor. My bike has a kick starter which helps. However, high gear with the rear wheel off the ground is also good. Remember to spin the wheel forward. This will be important later in the explanation. With the valve covers off, you can watch the valve rockers in action. On either cylinder, the rocker for the exhaust valve (header side) will open and close. While that one is closing, the intake rocker (carburetor side) will open and then close the valve. (this is called valve timing overlap) After the intake valve closes, the valve train will be slack for nearly a full rotation of the motor while the compression and power stroke(s) occur. You may adjust the rocker arm clearances at any point during this rotation until the exhaust rocker starts to move again on the next cycle. TDC is the mid point of the open window for slack pushrods. That's why finding TDC is usually recommended, but not necessary. Also, when I have the front cover off, I use the bolt in the alternator rotor to turn the motor. If you choose to do it that way, the motor turns clock-wise when looking at it from the front. Transmission in neutral, of course.

Thanks wobbly. Your description about looking for the side that isn’t moving and moving the engine 20 deg back and forth was the best description I’ve found on how to find tdc. After knowing that I was practically able to find it without checking the timing mark.

My problem ended up being twofold. 1 - I’d read to look for when the adjuster rod can rotate when turned by finger (ie freeplay in the system). Because my clearance was so off with the rocker arms actually touching my valve stems at TDC I was simply not seeing this which made me think I was doing something wrong. Doh! 2 - I fundamentally misunderstood how the adjuster rods work. I assumed that as they are attached to the rocker arm you would dial them in to create clearance. It seems that dialing them out pulls in the valve stem which creates clearance. Once I realized this the rest was a few minutes work.

Thanks again for the advice. I’m now one step closer to riding.

It's absolutely no problem, and you're very welcome.

I could tell that you were one fact away from fully understanding, which was leading to a lot of aggravation and frustration. IMHO, BMW misleads a lot of home mechanics by inferring that you must see the OT mark to set the valves. The problem is 1) if you're watching the flywheel, then you are most definitely NOT watching the vastly more important rocker arm movements, and 2) it's actually OK to adjust the valves anywhere near TDC. There is only one point for ignition timing, and that's on the appropriate flywheel mark. However, there is a huge range of flywheel position that's OK for valve adjustment.

Glad it all turned out OK.