Do you have a Power Commander installed on it? Mine would die when I pulled the clutch in shifting from 2nd to 1st. When I got into the mountains of Colorado it would die anytime I was down shifting. I unplugged the PC on the side of the road and the problem went away. Just a thought.
I don't think you could ruin it like that really. I would just see how it feels in the next few days and look for oil leakage.
All you do when you adjust it is make the spring stiffer or looser. To damage the internals I would think you would have to slam into a pothole to really distress...
I like using paper maps myself. The one thing I really like the GPS for is navigation through a city. Makes life a whole lot simpler and you don't have to be frustrated and can pay more attention to what is going on around you instead of always trying to look for your next turn.
I had a similar problem last summer. My front would shimmy and when I hit the brakes they wouldn't work until I pumped them a little. Turned out to be a wheel bearing that went bad. I would check it out before it gets worse. Could be the same problem.
Other things:
Bent rim.
Warped or...
I just stick with OEM. I'm not worried about a pound or two. Plus the OEM chain is a continuous chain and doesn't have a master link. You have to pull the swingarm bolt and tilt the swingarm out of the way to install it. I figure this is a good time to clean and lube the swingarm bolt at the...
Looked like a lot of them were in a hurry and just made some bad mistakes. Looks like most of those could have been avoided.
I love how they try and drag knee on some.
I was in NorCal down to San Francisco in June and they do try to make room for you. It would have taken a long time to get out of San Fran had I not been able to lane split. I wish they would pass it here in Texas.