Grease all over the back of my RTL, and I'm thinking, "Where from... ??"

[askitee]

My wife and I are on a 2 week trip and while at a pit stop yesterday, I noticed grease splattered on the rear of the top box, rear guard, and trailer. It seems to be a fair qty and I think its too much to be from something having failed on the RTL.

The only places I can think of are the Swing arm pivot or swing arm to shock pivot mechanism. I've only performed limited work on the Spyder, preferring to leave it in the hands of the tech.

We seem to be having our turn at one of those trips were things go wrong:

1. Left items at 1st motel on our trip - so not like us...
2. High temps affecting the Bypass relay powering the trailer
3. 12V Fridge unplugged itself from the lighter socket in the trailer - separate circuit and wiring - had to ditch the contents and restock
4. Arrived at a town - no accom left - had to make a 200km detour to get a bed for one night.
5. GPS sense of humor - twice we've headed to towns a few hundred km's away and ended up being in the middle of nowhere.
6. Earthquake back home damaging power to our home - for 14 hrs
7. At the wrath of the weather bureau - Forecast temps of 27° C, getting 39° C

and it's only Day 3 of 16...

 

[Peter Aawen]

Bugga! Who did you kick or swear at before you left home?


Is it definitely 'grease', or could it be oil from a blown shock?? Mind you, pretty much any oil running/blowing out of anything anywhere on the engine/trans will probably end up heading down and backwards initially; and IIRC, there is a little drain in one of the plastic panels under the engine that could let any oily type discharge blow backwards under the Spyder until it gets sucked up & over the back of everything by the turbulence under/behind the bike so that it ends up pretty much where you've seen it... If you can get down there to have a look, is there any sign of oil on the exhaust, cat converter/cat eliminator, or anything else that's ahead of the swing arm?

Or maybe you've just ridden thru something/anything on the road that ended up splattering up under there so that it would eventually get picked up by that turbulence and deposited where you could see it, leaving you to worry about where in the bleedin' 'eck it could've come from?? I ask that one, cos I only worked out that was what had happened to me/my Spyder once the 'splattered material' started to smell very much like 'well used fox guts' slowly cooking onto everything underneath and coating every leading surface from the rear wheel back on the Spyder as our trip progressed, even tho we thought we'd carefully washed it all off... It was only when I recognised the very distinctive smell that I recalled the earlier incident with said fox that had splattered its guts everywhere...

I do hope your trip gets better as it progresses, but if you were planning on heading North from the Hunter Valley any, especially anywhere up closer or toward the NSW/Qld Border &/or Cyclone Alfred, then maybe you should reconsider heading that way & head South/West instead?!

 

[askitee]

Bugga! Who did you kick or swear at before you left home?


Is it definitely 'grease', or could it be oil from a blown shock?? Mind you, pretty much any oil running/blowing out of anything anywhere on the engine/trans will probably end up heading down and backwards initially; and IIRC, there is a little drain in one of the plastic panels under the engine that could let any oily type discharge blow backwards under the Spyder until it gets sucked up & over the back of everything by the turbulence under/behind the bike so that it ends up pretty much where you've seen it... If you can get down there to have a look, is there any sign of oil on the exhaust, cat converter/cat eliminator, or anything else that's ahead of the swing arm?

Or maybe you've just ridden thru something/anything on the road that ended up splattering up under there so that it would eventually get picked up by that turbulence and deposited where you could see it, leaving you to worry about where in the bleedin' 'eck it could've come from?? I ask that one, cos I only worked out that was what had happened to me/my Spyder once the 'splattered material' started to smell very much like 'well used fox guts' slowly cooking onto everything underneath and coating every leading surface from the rear wheel back on the Spyder as our trip progressed, even tho we thought we'd carefully washed it all off... It was only when I recognised the very distinctive smell that I recalled the earlier incident with said fox that had splattered its guts everywhere...

I do hope your trip gets better as it progresses, but if you were planning on heading North from the Hunter Valley any, especially anywhere up closer or toward the NSW/Qld Border &/or Cyclone Alfred, then maybe you should reconsider heading that way & head South/West instead?!

Thanks Peter,

I do suspect I have run over a dollop or two on the Snowy Mountains or Hume highway somewhere, and its in chunks on the places it has landed. It doesn't seem to have increased in any way so its either run out or it was a "pickup" on the way.

As for the run of luck - I'm adopting your philosophy - keep riding and worry less until I know more.

 

[Gwolf]

My wife and I are on a 2 week trip and while at a pit stop yesterday, I noticed grease splattered on the rear of the top box, rear guard, and trailer. It seems to be a fair qty and I think its too much to be from something having failed on the RTL.

The only places I can think of are the Swing arm pivot or swing arm to shock pivot mechanism. I've only performed limited work on the Spyder, preferring to leave it in the hands of the tech.

We seem to be having our turn at one of those trips were things go wrong:

1. Left items at 1st motel on our trip - so not like us...
2. High temps affecting the Bypass relay powering the trailer
3. 12V Fridge unplugged itself from the lighter socket in the trailer - separate circuit and wiring - had to ditch the contents and restock
4. Arrived at a town - no accom left - had to make a 200km detour to get a bed for one night.
5. GPS sense of humor - twice we've headed to towns a few hundred km's away and ended up being in the middle of nowhere.
6. Earthquake back home damaging power to our home - for 14 hrs
7. At the wrath of the weather bureau - Forecast temps of 27° C, getting 39° C

and it's only Day 3 of 16...

There is not enough grease on a Spyder to get on very much of anything. If it was a large amount, it must have come from the road and was slung up by the rear tire. If there is some of what appears to be grease, on the inside of the front fenders or on any of the wheels, it must have come from the road surface. If you ran through some construction zones, the asphalt used to pave roads is made of aggregate and bituminum. When it is hot the bituminum is a sticky, oil based by-product of the oil refineries. It is in liquid form when it is being mixed with the aggregate, and looks almost like grease when it gets on vehicles. If it came from the road surface, that might be what got on the Spyder. The discount auto parts stores have a degreaser that will take bituminum or grease off of painted surfaces, but it requires a lot of elbow grease.

 

[Cosmo]

Brake Fluid?

 

[JayBros]

One never knows what kind of crap one is going to find distributed on the back of the roadster and a trailer when on tour or just riding locally. Just happens to be in the hand one is dealt.

 

[askitee]

My wife and I are on a 2 week trip and while at a pit stop yesterday, I noticed grease splattered on the rear of the top box, rear guard, and trailer. It seems to be a fair qty and I think its too much to be from something having failed on the RTL.

The only places I can think of are the Swing arm pivot or swing arm to shock pivot mechanism. I've only performed limited work on the Spyder, preferring to leave it in the hands of the tech.

We seem to be having our turn at one of those trips were things go wrong:

1. Left items at 1st motel on our trip - so not like us...
2. High temps affecting the Bypass relay powering the trailer
3. 12V Fridge unplugged itself from the lighter socket in the trailer - separate circuit and wiring - had to ditch the contents and restock
4. Arrived at a town - no accom left - had to make a 200km detour to get a bed for one night.
5. GPS sense of humor - twice we've headed to towns a few hundred km's away and ended up being in the middle of nowhere.
6. Earthquake back home damaging power to our home - for 14 hrs
7. At the wrath of the weather bureau - Forecast temps of 27° C, getting 39° C

and it's only Day 3 of 16...

Thanks to all. Yes the more I look its way too much for a linkage or wheel bearing. The qty certainly hasnt increased on day 4 having observed it when we stopped for a break on the Hume Hwy on day 2.

It is officially a problem trip, on top of the initial list:

1. Garmin Zumo 595 LM GPS has failed today, rang Garmin and they say no current model GPS units will fit the integrated Motorcycle mount. I've let them know it is now officially the first and last garmin product I'll own and I'll go like everyone else - a handlebar mount kit for my mobile. I have them to thank for joining many others who no longer buy GPS's.
2. The quake back home has damaged our ducted AC unit - the guy we trust is busy doing many others in our area. We are bracing ourselves for a possible replacement cost (approx $15k).

On the good side, I complained to my M/c brothers and sisters in Vic via reddit asking where the thermostat is for Victoria's weather. They wouldn't tell me but did drop the temps down to a more pleasant 30 deg C for our trip.