sherpa maintenance.

[quickvictory]

My new '02 650 is "officially" broken in...at 250 miles dropped for the first time and at 300 miles redlined in 5th @ 110mph Ya, I know I'm hard on my toys! On the hiway it does great, smooth with very little vibration. On the trails it's a bit rough...my skinny butt isn't heavy enough to compress the rear suspension much. Is there a softer aftermarket rear spring? (I have it dialed down as soft as it goes) In sand it handles like the slug I expected. 1st gear is WAY too high. The factory tall windshield hits the front brake reservoir. I rotated the handle bars and reservoir as far as I'm comfortable with and it still hits...any suggestions? Doesn't quite have the low end torque I expected. Thought I ought to be able to wheelie in 3 gears...can only in 1st gear. I have a 14 tooth sprocket on order...how much does this help? Does aftermarket exhaust add much? thanks, Randy

[Dan Pauley]

Someone posted that the initial maintenance on the sherpa is 500 mile and requires valve clearance. According to the service manual, Initial maintenance is at 600 mile and valve lash clearance is not required until 4500 miles. (yeah that didn't seem right to me either.) I changed the oil and filter. Then started reading on how to pull the body work and get at the motor for valve clearance. Stoopid thing did not want to cool of fast enough for me so I went for a ride instead. What a nice bike. Can flog the snot outta it and just have a ball on back roads and gravel. Back to the garage. Plan was to tear it down to the valves then take the measurement when cold in the morning. NOTE. If on the side stand, when you remove access cover to the flywheel for manual wrenching over the crank shaft bolt, It will drain about 1/2 quart of fresh hot oil on your otherwise clean shop floor. Next time crank it over when the oil is drained. Measured lash must be with engine cold. All were within spec but the exhaust were getting close to the tight end of the spec at 0.006 and 0.007" (min by the book is 0.0055) I buttoned it back up and left it to finish later tonight. This bike is a KLR250G4 we have owned since new. Dan /|\