It's been a long maintenance week for the GS and me.

What started as a simple tire change - going for the TKC 80 here - turned out to be sightly more complicated.

When the wheels came off, I looked at the sprockets. No doubt, they needed changing. My chain started stretching at a higher rate in the last 500 or so miles, so I knew I would have to change them soon, but I was hoping to finish the season on the old set. At 11k, the stock sprockets looked like this (new sprockets right next to them):

The front, especially, was pretty bad.

Every time I take my wheels off, I like to check the bearings as well. The front was fine, but the rear would not even turn when trying to spin them by hand (on the bike, however, I never noticed this). So out came the bearings and then it was time to shop for new ones (which I found at a local industrial supply shop at a low cost - same part numbers as the stock ones, SKF brand).
To remove the bearings, first I had to pry the seal out (with a dull blade screwdriver), remove a circlip, then knock on the bearings a couple of times to free the inner spacer. Once I got the spacer moving enough to tilt it slightly, I could get a long screwdriver in to hit against the bearings' inner races. A little heat from a hairdryer on the hub helped things along the way. I've seen some people use propane torches to heat the hub, but the gentle heat of the hairdryer did a fine job without melting any paint.
The sprocket carrier bearings are a little different. The inner bearing has to come out first, followed by a spacer, a circlip, and finally the outer bearing. Again, a little heat and they came out without any problems. You just have to move the spacer out of the way to be able to hit the inner race.

Before installing the new bearings, I cleaned everything really well (on the inside).

On the outside of the sprocket carrier there is a spacer that rides halfway in a seal. The trail-made lapping compound of mud and sand did a fine job in making two smooth groves in it. This would either allow more dirt behind the seals, or damage the seals over time, so I had a stainless steel spacer made at a local machine shop. There were also some rock nicks on the spacer.

A little cleanup around the front sprocket shaft, the rear carrier, and swingarm, and it was time for my new chain. I decided to go with RK XSO chain. I'll see how long it lasts under the harsh, Dualsport use. If I can't get any decent mileage from this one either, I'll be switching to cheap, non-O-ring chains and swapping them more frequently. 

I cut the change to stock length, 112 links, then used a clip master link instead of the rivet type. Some people like the clip links, some don't. I have never had one fail, so I used one on this chain as well. I think the key is to install the clip properly. First I put the O-rings where they belong, then squeezed the plates together with a pair of 6mm nuts over the pins. This pushed the O-rings in place and, after removing the vise, install the clip without any issues. I then cleaned the outside of the clip and baseplate with brake cleaner, and applied a little RTV to secure the clip in place should it fail for some reason.

While the wheel was off, I noticed my rear brake pads were on the thin side, so I replaced those as well.

And then I found that my from sprocket cover has a crack at the bottom and two of the brass inserts (through which the bolts pass through) pulled out of the plastic. Fix it or Farkle? Farkle won, but that is a story for a separate post.

The TKCs do look nice on the bike though. :)