Black, greasy stuff on my engine. Problem?

Hi folks,

I'm not a great one for doing my own servicing, I'm well aware of my
ability to royally **** things up - so before going to the bike shop or
getting the spanners out and performing my aforementioned ****-up I
thought I'd ask the brains on here.

When giving the bike a wash today I noticed a black, greasy deposit just
in front of the left side cover. It looks grey in these pictures, but
that's just the light -

http://www.vagabond.kinghell.com/IMG_0526a.jpg
http://www.vagabond.kinghell.com/IMG_0527a.jpg

I've had the bike over two years and I can't recall seeing it there
before (and. like most cruisers, it gets washed a lot). The bike's a
1500 Classic FI N3, and it's done around 12000 miles. Am I just being
paranoid here? Or does this need investigating further?

Thanks in advance.

 

It's terminal rot mate. The only way to sort it out is by giving me the
bike and I'll do some magic on it. I'll return the bike to you in, say,
37 years two months.

No probs.

 

A minor oil leak then, right?

I can't help being paranoid, sorry.

 

IANAE, but nah, I don't think it's anything to worry about. I'm not
even sure it's a leak. Just gunk that's collected up in a "crease", so
to speak.

If you're concerned, then clean it up and watch the area over time. If
it builds up again then I'd get it checked out.

 

Clean it up and throw a bit of talc over it, then **** the wet bit.

Just like first-time sex with a fat burd.

 

I sent the same question to a Yank forum, and I've had a couple of
replies from people who've had exactly the same greasy mess on the left
side, and it's a leak. Oh, well - maybe I can pretend it's a Harley.

July doesn't seem to be my month - last week my house got struck by
lightning and everything connected to the telephone line or the telly
aerial (or however you fucking spell it) blew up. That was 4 digital
phones, 1 ADSL router, 1 network hub, 3 computers, 1 DVD player, 1
satelite decoder and a fucking widescreen telly. I now bitterly regret
being too fucking pikey to pay for household contents insurance.

Nothing to do with the oil leak I know, but I'm all cross and I'm also
pissed (a few bottles of Broadside).

 

If your house is in an open area and likely to get hit again, you should
unplug stuff when you know thunderstorms are about. I had to do it last
week at 3am when an impressive flashing and banging woke me up. Even
now, I'm not sure I acted in time - some lightning damage is subtle, and
the odd crash or freeze when I'm encoding video might be due to it.

It's not necessarily a direct strike that does the damage, some way
down the road but near to the telephone line does just as well.

As far as protection goes - nothing works against several million volts,
unless you want to get involved in rods and conductors and even then...

 

What about fitting a transient voltage protection device to the incoming
mains?

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)

My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
Space in shed where NSR125 used to be
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005/6), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow), OMF#11

 

In my case, the surge came through the TV aerial and phone line - the
surge protectors on the PCs did nothing.

I usually disconnect as much as possible when there's a storm around,
this house was hit by lightning about 10 years ago, so I know it's a
risk here. This time I forgot.

 

<taps finger impatiently awaiting word from wtom>

Never mind, he's not here.

I don't think it's much good if the line receives a close-by hit (if a
direct hit everything's blown out of the wall) because the weedy surge
protection device isn't up to the type of surge that's incoming.

Most of those cheapo surge protection devices are a joke - you can put a
whole-house protector on, but it's not cheap and only for the types of
spikes in normal use. Lighting will fry it.

 

I was thinking of a commercial type device as manufactured by WJ Furse.

I have a building with various modules dotted around, including the Sky TV
signal cable I recently installed.

As you say, not cheap.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)

My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
Space in shed where NSR125 used to be
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005/6), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow), OMF#11

 

Better not to use 100W bulbs with it, then.

 

A few years ago that happened to a friend of mine, and his tv exploded,
showering glass all over the lounge. Luckily they were in the next room
having dinner at the time.

Si

 

FFS.

 

And?