xr650 Maintenance

[jkwithers]

I have an 03 Xr 650r and am preparing for a three day 250 mi. ride in mexico I have already changed the oil and lubed the chain, cleaned the air filter . What else should I do. Also I was told that I should lube my chain often. The chain will be dirty/dusty does it need to be cleaned first ?Thanks Jack

[larry650]

This is what a xr650r was designed to do in the place it was designed for. The right rear bolt that holds on the fender vibrated out on mine. That was the only maintenance issue I had on a 600 mile ride around copper canyon. How stock is your bike? Lots of modifications to make it better though. At the least I`d reccomend a larger tank and skid plate. Stock chain should be good. I put a DID xring and Ironman sprockets on mine. I like Maxima chain wax to lube the chain. ?

[jkwithers]

Thanks for the info also how about lubing a dirty chain? ?

[qadsan]

how about lubing a dirty chain? ?

Just make sure you have a clean chain to start with. 250 miles is no big deal unless it will all be done in the mud. If you've got the stock chain which is a DID VM o-ring chain, then just make sure its clean, lightly lubed on the outside and the grease inside the o-ring seal will do the rest. You can use a grunge brush and their cleaning solution or simple green or kerosene to clean the chain if its really dirty. If you cleaned it with a water based product, then spray it down with WD40. Then wipe it down good with paper towls or a cloth and finally lube it with a chain oil or something like TriFlow, etc. Then wipe it down again quickly with a paper towl or cloth so its not dripping. The last thing you want is a chain that attracts or holds dirt due to the type or amount of lube on it. Unless you're spending time in the mud, your chain should look like a new chain but with powdery dirt on it and not caked with dirt after 250 miles.

My friends spray the crap out of their chains with whatever gunk they have and if they take my kids riding, they spray my kids bikes too and it drives me nuts. It's terrible because my kids bikes come home with their chains all goopy. The mixture of goop & dirt can act like a valve griding compound and wear your chain chain much quicker than if you simply sprayed your chain down with only WD40 and nothing else and its a time consuming mess to clean up. Just remember that a clean chain is a happy chain.

[JetPilot]

Im no expert, but I have read from LOTS of people that do know thier stuff on these forums to NEVER use WD-40 on a chain, or anything with rubber 0-Ring seals you dont want destroyed. They say it will attack the rubber seals and soon you will have a chain with no effective 0-Ring seals. Everyone has been telling me to soak the chain in kerosene or desil, it cleans and lubes it at the same time.

Jet Pilot

[qadsan]

but I have read from LOTS of people that do know thier stuff on these forums to NEVER use WD-40 on a chain, or anything with rubber 0-Ring seals you dont want destroyed.

That's absolute horse pucky in my opinion! Yeah, if you soak an o-ring chain in WD40 for a very very very long time you'll damage the o-rings, but in the real world where you're only spraying down your chain every so often and replacing the chain every so often anyway its not even a factor for me. Tons of people use WD40 on their chains without problems. I've used it for many years without any issues on o-ring chains. We've got 17,232 off road miles on a 1987 Honda TR200 that still has the original o-ring chain which has been sprayed hundreds of times with WD40 and the o-rings are still in tact today! I still have my old 1983 Yamaha IT490 among other bikes that I put an o-ring chain on back in the 80's before I retired it in the early 90's. I sprayed that chain every week with WD40 for years and the chain lasted a very long time even though that poor bike was abused. There's counless numbers of people who have used WD40 with excellent results for years & years without issues, so I don't buy that opinion from these people who know their stuff when they say NEVER use WD40 on an o-ring chain. Even the folks at RK Chain recommend the use of WD40 after a chain has been hosed down.

[needsprayer]

Well I've been using WD-40 on chains to drive off water on both O-ring and nonO-ring chains for years. Sometimes that is all I use on O-ring chains if I am in a hurry. The O-rings have not shown any sign of cracking.

A long time ago I was provided three bottles of an experimental dry lube to evaluate (MX-1000) and it had an applicator that placed a drop on every O-ring. So I got up close and personal with the chain.

As you can read, I have used WD-40 by itself at times. I do not use WD-40 exclusively on O-ring chains because I want more protection. However, I have not seen any evidence of WD-40 hurting the O-rings.

BTW, MX-1000 is available: http://www.mx1000.com/MX1000.htm

I gave the developer excellent feedback on this product.

[jkwithers]

Thanks for your expertise ?

[irondude]

I used to do Baja tours with one of the older companies. We ONLY used WD-40 on the chains. Not many XR's are riden as much as Baja tour bikes. The owner was Roger De Costers mechanic back in the day...he's a dick to work with, but i think he knew a thing or two about chain lubrication.

I've been doing the same with my Baja race bike. In fact i now WD 40 the entire bike after every wash. A thin film keeps the metal from oxidizing.

I find that chain lubes inevitably get gunky. When they are gunky small bits of soil gets in the gunk, and this acts as a polishing agent and greatly affects chain and especially sprocket life. I suspect a bit of this dirty gunk with the suspended solids is rubbing the o rings as well. So if anything WD 40 extends O ring life much better than chain lubes and waxes IMHO. ?

[heliosstudios]

Hmm my chain is dry, shiny, and starting to get clunky. Time for some lube! My experience with WD-40 is that it drives off moisture well, penetrates well, lubricates ok, and evaporates rather quickly. Wether or not that's good for a chain, I dunno. It disolves sticky stuff like nothing (soak a rag in it to remove sticker gunk, works like a charm.)

I'm interested in the wax. If it's really a wax, will it prevent dirt build-up? Gonna try that.

[VelvetHog]

WD-40 is a great solvent. It dissolves grease and oil very well. Grease and oil are petroleum based products. The o'rings in your chain are petroleum based as well. From my experience the WD-40 seems to degrade the o'rings used in motorcycle chains. You can test your o'rings if you have extras by soaking them in WD-40. I think you will find that they become soft. Some o'rings may resist this softening, but the ones I have tested have degraded. I now make sure to not get WD-40 on my chain or near any seals in the engine that contain rubber. Better safe than sorry. The factory manual for my '98 XR400 (long gone) recommended using ONLY 80/90 gear oil to lube the chain. Can you imagine that mess?