Oil.

[pinkyfloyd]

Last night I trailed thick black oil into the house so as you can imagine I'm in the bad books. Oops. Today I went and had a look to see where this stuff came from and theres a load of it on my stand. Now, The engine sump is clean and the oil levels are fine so its not them which led me to think its excess from the chain. On having a look at the front sprocket area there is a good bit of oil there and its the same stickyness as the chain, which the last owner has heavilly oiled.

So my question is...... Could this be the case with the sprocket area just spitting out excess chain oil or do I have to book the bike into a mechanic before the bike blows up?

[benny hedges]

wouldnt worry tbh, i just cleaned all mine off today so i dont get told off again.
doing a trackday tomorrow and dont want oil & grease dropping off the bike...

i pretreated the crap with mr muscle then jetwashed it all off - nice & clean again.
you might be as well taking off the sprocket cover & give that a good clean as well - dont pull the clutch pushrod out unless the area around it is spotless or you will poke crap inside.

to stop the slave cylinder popping out, remove the clutch lever first ;)

that vanish mousse spray is great for cleaning the mess off the carpet btw

[pinkyfloyd]

Cheers for the reply. I'm not overly concerned as the oil tank seems fine. I stood the bike up and the spy glass seemed good. WD40 got the crap out of the carpets. Now we have weird smelling hallways lol

[tony.mon]

Just one other possibility; if the clutch pushrod seal is leaking slightly (not unusual) the fluid oozes out inside the sprocket cover, mixes with the old chain grease around there and then drops out- usually down the sidestand.

Keep a close eye on the clutch fluid level.
If it goes down at all, that's the culprit.

Seal kit isn't expensive, and it's an easy job, but bleeding the fluid through can be a long process, just keep at it. And watch out for the reservoir emptying, it's really small and will empty with three or more pumps of the lever.

try thoroughly cleaning the inside of the clutch cover (messy job, bit best done regularly) and then inspecting after a few miles' ride.

BTW, the fluid is corrosive to paint, so be careful where it ends up.

[pinkyfloyd]

Cheers for that. Will check the levels of the clutch fluid. I've been doing a good deal of round town riding so might well be the culprit. Will have to strip the parts of over the next day or 2 and have a good looksie.