Thin sheen of oil on the rear wheel

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MarJayRD
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2012 9:24 pm

Thin sheen of oil on the rear wheel

Post by MarJayRD »

Hello,

The other day when I was in the garage moving around one of my other (inferior ;) ) bikes, I noticed a thin sheen of oil on the rear tyre of my KR1S. I've only ridden the bike once since I bought it back in late November, and at the time the bike felt a little wayward at the rear end. I took this to be down to the cold weather on the Dunlop Alpha 10 tyres, but it seems there is a minor oil leak somewhere which is spraying a mist of oil onto my rear wheel.

The oil looks yellowy in colour, so I do not believe it to be 2T oil, so I suspect it to be gearbox oil. Anyone know where the gearbox oil breather is located, and if it could leak oil onto the rear tyre? Could the oil be from another source perhaps? The wheel rim itself seems clean, so I don't think the oil was from the silencer spanny connection (although there is a small leak from here on the right hand spanny).

This seems to be the one issue with an otherwise excellent bike and I'd love to get it out again when the weather is a bit warmer, so I just need to work out where this goop is coming from. Anybody got any ideas? I even thought it could be brake fluid, but the rear brake hose does not look to be split and the rear brake appears to work well.
Luders
Avgas Sniffer
Posts: 3926
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:29 am
Location: Oxfordshire

Post by Luders »

The gearbox oil breather is located on the top of the gearbox housing and the oil pipe is routed down the right hand side near to where the swingarm joins the frame.

If you have overfilled the gearbox, it is likely that some may have passed through the breather and out the overflow, giving your rear tyre a thin coating.

Remove the belly pan and have a good look around, inspecting all the breather pipes on that right hand side.
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