Hey Slammer - you're having way too much fun oiling that cam in the XR. You're one of the few guys I've heard of having a motor problem with the XRs. I would suspect that you won't have any more cam issues.

But as far as the springs go, I'd be very suspicious of making the XR suspension any softer. The usual complaint from just about everyone is that it's too soft. One of my riding buddies rode the devil out of a XR250 and the problem was always the low quality hydraulic portion of the shock or fork. The rear shock was designed with simply too soft of materials for the shock body and would never hold up long. Even after a number of rebuilds the damping effect would drastically subside and he'd be left with not much more than a spring. That could explain your launch when going over an obstacle.

As for the jetting - if you don't have any luck with the typical range of pilot jets I suggest you also look at the particular needle and slide your using. While the needle won't make much of a difference around idle - the different slides will - they have different angles cut into the outboard side and have a great effect on the air flowing over the idle circuit. You didn't mention whether you'd changed any of your intake tract but if you have removed any of the various baffles etc. then you may need to make further adjustments away from stock.

Obviously you need to keep on top of what your spark plug looks like after changing one carburetion thing or another -don't want to hole a piston or something!

I don't know about you but my dirt bike riding sure makes my street riding more enjoyable - makes my VFR feel velvet smooth and I feel better dealing with various road situations.

Have lots of fun with the XR!

MW