To get my bike out of the office, don't laugh I really do keep it in my office, I have to back it over a stone step that's pretty much the same height as the Savage's ground clearance so unless I get the angle precisely right something usually scrapes the step (sump, frame rail etc).  

Today when I got back from work, a 30 mile round trip, there was a little oil slick on the step and path outside, and, in the middle of it, a little plastic plug.

Now straight away I knew what it was, the stopper from that dangly rubber hose, and a bit of site searching reveals that a) oil, water vapor and assorted crud gathers there, and b) it should be emptied every service and the stopper put back to make sure dust doesn't sneak in.

However, what I'm not so clear on is where that oil/water mix has come from nor what the stuff that's come out is telling me.  It was a greenish colour, no sign of oil-water emulsion (none of that froth my old VW engines used to produce when the head gasket was failing) and as for quantity it can't have been more than a few mililitres, judging by the little splots and pools that were soon wiped up with a few sheets of toilet paper. Is the oily green goo any sort of diagnostic test for the health of what's going on inside?  The previous ride, Sunday, had been a 100+ mile blast trying to keep up with the big boys 75mph+ for much of the time.

sluggo wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:

Then the endcap could by a little mishap fall off  

DangMan wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:

Or maby not then  

I pull the cap every time I do something to the bike.  Yet to find something though...    Just make this check part of routine stuff.

- Roadie