What’s cause of my Fireblade’s oil leak?

Q. Over the past couple of days I’ve noticed a small amount of oil dripping from one of the breather hoses under the rear shock on my 2001 Fireblade.

I’ve only noticed this happening after I’ve ridden to work (15 miles) and after the bike has been left, pretty much in direct sunlight for a few hours.

There’s nothing coming out when I’m on the move (that I can tell – I stopped a lot on the ride home yesterday!), and no drops in the garage when the bike is left overnight. I had the fairing off yesterday to see if I could see any obvious cause and couldn’t find anything.

My manual suggests checking the oil once the engine is up to ‘operating temperature’, and then leaving it to cool down for a few minutes.

A. Warming up the engine before checking the oil only applies when the filter has been changed. The oil level should be checked on level ground with cold engine and the bike balanced upright, it should be half way up the sight glass or in between min/max.

Add oil at about a 150cc a time and allow time for the lubricant to drain into the crankcases and show up against the glass.

If you’ve piled too much in there, once it’s warmed up and if you rev it quite hard, the excess will be pushed up the engine breather pipe and into the airbox where it will drain off down a breather pipe and drip, drip, drip onto the road.