Abnormal chain wear / 17" Warp 9's. Thanks for your help!

Hi Everyone,

Here is my 2001 XR650R. I am having abnormal chain wear. The wheels are 17” Warp 9’s. My axle block adjuster is even on both sides. Prior to installing the Warp 9’s, I had no noticeably abnormal chain or sprocket issues on stock wheels. Besides the new wheels (which come with new Warp 9 spacers) and new rear sprocket, nothing has been changed.

PICTURES: Imgur Album

My gut instinct is that the spacers for the rear wheel are incorrect in size, possibly pushing the wheel too far to the left side of the bike, thus causing wear on the “inside” of the chain.

Thanks for your help! A little nervous about figuring this out.

Welcome, I wouldn't ride the bike another inch till you sort this out, firstly if you have to use a chain split link fit it the right way round !!!!.
Those shavings won't be from the chain that's simply impossible that's aluminium you can see which again needs sorted ASAP....
Get the bike off the ground at the rear and take the chain off and you need a straight edge to check where the rear sprocket sits in relation ship to the front...sounds simple. I get the polished effect on my chain that's normal as the chain runs through the lower chain block and this will polish off the chains finish.
Chain could be catching the underside of the swinging arm if the chain slider has worn through, I guess your running a very small rear sprocket low 40's

Mauser - thanks for your detailed response.

Evidently I made a mistake when installing my master link upon shortening the chain. I will fix that right away. I am running a smaller rear sprocket, 44 teeth. I will try your suggestion of laying a straight edge flat against the rear sprocket to see its alignment with the front sprocket.

Have also emailed Warp 9 about this, waiting to here back. Cheers.

OH, what do you think about my front tire not being evenly placed between the front forks? Is this abnormal for an XR?

Front wheel is terribly tight ?, does it spin up true ?...no wobble ?. Cannot think apart from spacers being wrong how it could be corrected...sorry not much help ....
If you think about it; it's only a small amount as the left side nearly touches the fork leg and the right side doesn't have a large gap...when bang on centre it will be a tight fit