Having a plug to remove and a nut to turn is a relatively new invention/luxury. In the old days, rotating the wheel or using the kick start were the only ways to find TDC, quite often with a piece of wood shoved down the spark plug hole! A technique familiar to anyone with old British bikes.

So yes, you could do it that way, but in all honesty you'd be far better doing it the "modern" way.

Your predicament is one of the reasons I never opted for the Adventure Spec bash plate (despite it being top of my list for protection); the tubing get's in the way of simple service jobs on both sides. To drop the front of the plate, you have to remove engine mounts I believe, and doing this repeatedly will undoubtedly cause the bolts to stretch and accurate torquing will become difficult, besides the fact (as you imply) it's all a bit of an unnecessary faff (IMHO).

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