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NICE to know - thanks for this info. I love when community fills in the blanks on stuff. Have a great and safe time on your lovely two wheels!

Greetings all the way to Poland - wow! Thanks for the compliments. As for choices on brake pads, I can't offer a lot of comparative values but can say that I'm quite happy with the EBC ones I put on. I don't know if that's terribly scientific - ha - but I have no complaints at all in street, dirt, rain, heat.

@@bobwolff68 Thank you for your answer. And have you noticed whether the brake disc on the FA213V brake pads wears out faster than the original BMW ones? Regards

I don't think the disc (rotor) is wearing differently between them, but I sure couldn't prove it. As for the pads compared to the BMW pads - I think the after market ones are wearing more slowly, but again that's a "feel" rather than any data or science. <shrugs>

No noises from my drive train. My first guess is probably yours as well - take a very critical look at alignment of the front sprocket as it relates to the inbound/outbound chain. Also the orientation of the front sprocket flipped or not - it would lead to the same misalignment, ultimately. Good luck finding it and please report back what you find. Curious. Oh - I'd also suggest going link by link by link and feel how easy or hard it is to pivot each link's joint. If you find one that's extra stiff, that could be a cause. Last thought would be to re-install your old chain or sprocket one by one to validate who the culprit is.

@@bobwolff68 I totally agree with the importance of the chainline alignment and checked it several times. Sprockets are installed properly too. I put the original BMW sprocket and chain back on, leaving the new JT rear sprocket in place. The bike was quiet again, so I sprung for a new BMW front sprocket ($$$, ouch!) thinking the front JT was the culprit. Nope, the whining is back. Next I pulled off the new DID chain and tried a JT chain...same thing..whining. Super frustrating for what is typically straight forward and easy maintenance.

Wow! Well I'm so glad you did all the troubleshooting on this, but not having a good REASON is frustrating and maybe a bit concerning? Please check in when you find out more - I'd be happy to know where you land on this as would others. GOOD LUCK.

Hey there - the swing arm wasn't removed. There were some larger T50 torx and also the front sprocket which required a large wrench. I have a large Harbor Freight torque wrench and a breaker bar as well. The breaker bar is around 24" long - just a large craftsman breaker.

Wow! Congrats and well done. I would have done better if I'd had traction control OFF - it killed my power too much and I lost all my momentum and re-starting on that hill was so hard. Pretty gutsy to do it solo. What rims do you have that you were concerned about bending? Spoked wheels should have no issues. What were you riding?

LOL thanks for the new nickname. Yeah we skipped the real deal and didn't even know it until after I'd published the video. My back was so friggin' tired by the time we had gotten off that mountain I was just wanting to take the work-around to Ellensburg to get a couple well made cocktails! :) Have a good one.

Cool - rock on. Enjoy!

Well, he's a very experienced and talented rider and I'm no noob either. The steepness of that hill and the softness of the large rocks sliding made it pretty nasty to stand until you got a bit of momentum. But thanks for questioning whether we know what we're doing.

Hey Martin - Yeah I think the only realistic way to do it is to remove the forks to do the job. It's a bit more work, unfortunately, but it'll give you some great experience removing the front wheel and calipers and getting to know the underside of the front end. I had thought about sucking the oil out as well and while I'm betting it is possible, it won't get all the crud out like turning it over would. Would it be helpful? Yeah I'd imagine 90% of the goodness if I had to guess. If you do try that, please let me know how it went and how you feel about it afterwards!

Cool - glad it helped.

Nice! Love hearing about the "solution"!

Cool! Glad to know up-two works. I've been told the 750gs somehow doesn't have quite the same clearance, but the 850 goes up two - good to know!

Glad to hear it! Thanks.

Yeah I try real hard to look for asymmetric things and take care to lay them down in a particular way or right next to the new one in the same manner etc.

Ha - thanks - appreciate it. There are soooo many who are badder-assers than me, but I do get out there to do the thing when I can! Sure is easier on the littler bike though.

Did you say "Nice Rack!" ?? :) Thanks! But seriously - this is the SoloRacer billet rack. I was super happy with their stuff. Check it out. soloracer.com/wr250rtailrack.html

Hey - glad you enjoyed. As far as removing the quickshifter from the gear lever, I get that it would make it easier to get things lined up on the splines, but I figure it leaves you kinda "in the dark" as to how much of a difference was made in the lever until putting that part back in place so I went this route. Glad you like your modified method tho! ;)

You are correct that it is not an OHV park. Might be hard to tell from my fpv, but I'm on a WR250R. Plated vehicles are allowed. Your description of "any motorized vehicle..." isn't accurate. Enjoy your plated vehicles there - I hope you do!

Bob, it seems to be an interesting situation there, and by no means am I trying to say don't ride there or drive an argument. My buddies and I saw your video, liked it, and are heading down there tomorrow to ride on our ADV bikes (890's, T7). I went to the Tumey Hills website to check it out to learn more about it and saw that it states OHV's are not permitted. So wanting to make sure we could get in and ride so I went to the CA DMV OHMVR Frequently Asked Questions to see the definition of an OHV and found this "What is an Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV)? Any motor vehicle operated off-highway is an OHV. A highway licensed vehicle is an OHV when operated off of the highway. Vehicles having Green and Red Stickers are OHVs". So, I think we have a mismatch in governmental organizations definitions is all. It's clear from your video there are licensed vehicles "off highway" there, and all the shooters certainly need to drive in to get to their various ranges. So, we are heading there tomorrow and looking forward to a nice ride! So, thanks again for your video, much appreciated!!

@nealschlatter434 yeah ohv can be defined oddly. But ultimately any place that is not ohv must have a plate. An ohv park requires green or red sticker based on time of year. Enjoy Tumey!

Rock on, Shifty! Happy to hear it!

Thanks! Yeah special place. And I struggle with target fixation too. It was ON MY MIND. There were like 5 of those - smaller than that one but no pole/marker on the other ones. Gah!

Super glad to hear it!

Thanks for being a great guide, Scott!

Indeed! The terrain and views are just unbeatable.

Thanks -glad it was helpful. I'd love to try that again on my smaller WR250R and work my way into doing it fully on my big bike, but that may just be a pipe dream! Ha. Good luck on your solo venture.

Excellent! Glad it helped!

Wow - you mean the effective length of each fork wound up being different, basically? I wonder if this is just a byproduct of the fact that one fork is compression and the other is rebound and you just have to "make it fit" and it's fine. What did you wind up doing as a solution?

Sure thing - I think this will wind up helping lots of folks over time. I was pretty freaked out the first time it happened to me! :O

Thanks - glad to hear it.

Wow - thanks! Love to hear that. :)

Momentum - big time. Turning off traction control too! Well done!

Glad it's useful! I'd say there are likely some online resources / boards where you would find a lot of torque specs for the XR. Or purchase the repair manual from BMW for about $100. But I'd also say that your instinct is probably pretty right on. BMW tries to be pretty consistent in engineering so I'd expect similar specs for similar functions. YMMV.

Hey Daniel - glad you liked the video. I did wind up purchasing the shop manual (CDROM) from BMW for ~$100 USD. It's been quite helpful in several tasks - especially for proper torque values and such.

Thank you!

Yeah there's discussion here about that topic. We skipped Umtanum ridge that day as we were pooped and I gotta say I'm pretty happy we did! Sounds like you made it ok - hope the bike surived as well. :D

@@bobwolff68 I dropped my bmw in the exact same spots as you lol. we made it to the bottom of the real baby head hill and turned back cuz there was no way I was getting up it. It was worth the out and back for the ridge ride and scenery.

@coasterx2796 heavy gravity on that hill! And yeah don't blame ya on the one on umtanum ridge!

Oh my - well some of those badasses do it "no problem", but us mere mortals....well that was a no-fun-jungle for me! :D Glad ya got through it!

There were a few options/upgrades at the place I used sprocketcenter.com - I ordered part JT3585001 for my 850gs. They were pretty quick with shipping and all. Worked out great.

Thanks! Was a great day - and was finally a bit cooler than the prior days. Wasn't a gnarly day either which was great for my sore ribs from the day before. Ugh. :-p

@@bobwolff68 I have to catch up for some reason I started with the last video!! It never served up the other ones. Can’t wait to dig in. And yes amazing how hot it can get at elevation in WA. Who knew 🤣

Enjoy - the WABDR has some great stuff in it and some fun stuff like that GEOCache hunt.

At 4:30 I note the large shoulder and it should face outward. Are you noting something different than that? Anti-seize sounds like a good idea. I didn't note any on mine so I didn't consider it in re-assembly. Good call.

The "entry" angle is pretty critical for this bike. I don't tend to have much problem with the pads but a few times they made me curse.

I'll have to disagree there. It's 100Nm so it takes a grunt to get that thing loose. Not a big deal but typical.

Cool - glad it helped. Definitely a weak spot in BMW's early service interval.

Not enough coffee. Nothing is true about this comment except how good it was. Disregard the rest. Greg

No worries! Coffee is GOOD. ;)

Awesome - love hearing this kinda stuff. Makes my day. You'll do great on the chain change. It's not an awful deal.

I hear ya dude. It drove me pretty crazy too. I found a pair of angled tweezers and a tiny flat blade to give me enough push-out from the outer edge and 'lift' with the tweezers at the same time to do it. I'm sure BMW has some special tool for it but why not go 'standard', eh? Pfft.

Cool - I love hearing that they are valued!

Hey - glad you're enjoying the videos and your 850! I took a search of my emails and figured out we both purchased the SW-Motech (twisted throttle) Adventure Rack to have a common connection platform that's sturdy. I took a look on their site and didn't find it from the URL but they have something similar. My goal was STURDY and that it has plenty of loop-holes for straps and other connectors like a RotoPax mount and her Givi top box.

Great report, sir! Really appreciate the additions and thoughtful writing. Glad the video was a good start, at least!

Sounds super awesome. There's only one climb I remember going South to North on day 1 which was sketch or a challenge - deeper gravel and exposure, but it could be walked if necessary. As for camping - I don't know as we did hotels on our trek. I'd suggest the FB group for WABDR as a GREAT resource for that.

@@bobwolff68 gotcha! Thanks 🙏

I'm thrilled with the spring change-out. It took the "dive" out of the shocks and yet kept a nice supple ride on the highway. If I had infinite dollars, the full cartridge might be nicer, but this was huge bang-for-the-buck as far as I'm concerned.

Glad it was helpful - assuming you found the vid prior to the decision? :) Mostly it depends on conditions for that route. It could be no biggie with not too many challenges or it could be a mess with wetter or more rutted conditions and picking a bad line.

@@bobwolff68 Imagine it will be a disaster right now andd for a few months on, like every other dirt back road in Cali! Off to Death Valley! Cheers!

Indeed I'm not going anywhere soon! But DVNP might still be quite a disaster, too. Some of those early rains made it over the Sierra into DVNP. Be wary!