New sprockets, fork seals, oil

We're getting ready to do a day ride in a couple of days, & i've been meaning to change my sprockets & chain. I got new ones several months ago, but haven't gotten around to putting them on. Then i had a leak in my front fork seals, & needed to fix that, too. So i was whining about all the work i had to do on this bike, & my riding buddy Tom invited me over to work on it. It's about 50 miles & over the Jerome mountain pass to Prescott, & we just got a big snow load dumped over the weekend. But it was warming up, so i decided to head over.

It was nearly 2pm by the time i left, & it was quite chilly going over the mountains.. snow all over. Then i made a couple of wrong turns filled up with gas, & by the time i got to Tom's it was nearly 4.

He's got a nice hydrolic moto jack, so we raised it up & i started on the back wheel, & Tom on the forks. Everything removed uneventfully, & Tom even had a nice chain breaker to pop off the old chain. I've just drilled out a pin in the past, but the chain break was easy & worked well.

Do you think i was due for a front sprocket? ..about 9k miles on this.. lots of mud, sand, rocky off road, & plenty of slab, too. 4 broken teeth! Tom was surprised i made it this far. I noticed a couple of broken teeth after my last ride at sheeps bridge, & figured it was time for a new one.



Next the new back one. I wanted to go 14/44, & got a 110 chain which fit perfectly. I could only find an alloy renthal at rocky mtn, & it was a little more than i wanted to pay, but it works. I had an alloy back sprocket on my drz with over 18k miles on it, so i figured this should be fine on the 250. A new master link & everything is set.





I knew i had some chain wear on the swingarm, but was shocked to see how much. Nearly 1/4" had worn down. I was pretty careful to keep my chain tight, but a time or 2 it got loose & the damage was done. We both complained about Yamaha.. a poor engineering job, imo, to have the chain hit the swingarm this much just because the chain is a little loose. I should have replaced the slider while i had it off, but i didn't. I'm not happy about the swingarm, but will probably just live with it.. It will probably be ok. If i have any problems, i'll get a new swingarm or have this welded up. Next time i take off the rear wheel i might get a new slider.




In the meantime, Tom was taking off the forks. He drained the oil out, cleaned all around the seals, put in fresh oil & put the forks back in.



Even with the visiting & goofing off, it only took a little over an hour for us to knock this out. I put my windscreen back on for the ride home, & Tom did the final detail cleaning.. wiping my wild looking beast off for the long, cold ride home.



Paula generously made us sandwiches, & we checked out some things on his computer. It was nearly 7 by the time i hit the road. Temps had fallen below 40, but i stayed on the highway & was home by 8. ..ready for the ride on thursday.