Here's the worst flaw in the seemingly indestructible XR. It's a recently found chink in the armor, so I can't give you the percentages. My '00 has a serious case of it, as you can tell in the picture. My bike has mega off- road mileage, and I first noticed the beginnings of it two seasons ago. For some reason, the linkage rides to the rh side of the bike and wears the sides of it.

The Fix:

While not an immediate issue, down the road it may call for some costly repairs. My take on what causes it is that the tabs on the swingarm where the bellcrank attaches are not square. Though everything moves in different directions as you roost down the trail, the majority direction of force on that pivot point would force the linkage off to one side , causing the wear.

There is no easy fix for the cause, and the issue is new enough so I don't think any of us at the group have tried any form of prevention yet. My future cure will be thin metal shims placed at the wear points to keep the soft aluminum parts from wearing at each other. I'll be happy if I can at least relegate the wear only to the replaceable parts, and away from the swingarm and frame. Look for an update on this down the road.